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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



1 



AMONG 



COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



BY 



O. J. KERN 



Superintendent of Schools, Winnebago County 
Illinois 



GINN & COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



LI8KARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conies ft*ceived 

AUG 81 1906 

f$LASS' cX XXc. No, 
* /S/f DLL. 

COPY B. / 



Copyright, 1906 
By O. J. KERN 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



fEfje gUijettjeum 3£ress 

GINN & COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHOSE 

FEET HAVE WANDERED OR MAY WANDER 

ALONG COUNTRY ROADS, OVER FIELDS, 

THROUGH WOODLAND, TO THE 

COUNTRY SCHOOL 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/amongcountryschoOOkern 



PREFACE 

This book is not a scientific treatise on education nor a 
manual of methods for the teacher. This may be the need 
for the country school. If so, some one better fitted must 
undertake the task of its preparation. 

This little volume is not even a book on agriculture. It 
may be fairly questioned whether or not the country school- 
teacher needs something else before a text-book on the 
science and practice of farming. 

In a personal letter to the author dated December 19, 
1904, the Honorable James Wilson, United States Secre- 
tary of Agriculture, says : 

You have many delightful things in that write-up of } T ours, and it 
seems to me that you' should not stop short in speaking to the public 
through your pen. We are needing, and needing very much, agri- 
cultural text-books. I have said this before to a great many people, 
and have asked if they could not write one directed to the farm child 
through farm topics. Something is being done along that line, but 
there is a great deal yet to be done. 

The author hopes that this book will prove suggestive 
to the teacher and school officer who are striving for the 
spiritualization of country life through the medium of the 
country school. He believes that a careful reading of its 
pages will show a practical way of interesting the "farm 
child through farm topics." 



Vlll PREFACE 

What is thus offered is the result of seven years of very 
earnest thought and hard work in an endeavor to secure 
for the country child his rights so far as an educational 
opportunity is concerned. The country school should have 
that freedom which country life affords. This book has but 
little to say about the mechanics of school management. 

In the training of children and the development of char- 
acter no greater opportunity can be offered than that now 
belonging to the teacher in the country school. The author 
hopes these pages may prove helpful in the way of making 
the teacher a greater inspirational force in country life. 
Likewise no such opportunity was ever presented to a 
school officer as is now before the county superintendent 
of schools. It is his privilege to become a real leader in an 
educational way and to do original constructive work in the 
evolution of the country school to meet the new conditions 
of country life. 

In the development of the country school discourage- 
ments will come and seemingly insurmountable obstacles 
will block the way. It is no time, then, to become de- 
spondent or cynical. Go out under the stars and breathe 
the resolve in prayer to be true to right ideals. The reward 

is to the one who remains steadfast to the end. 

O. J. K. 

Highland, Rockford, Illinois 
July, 1906 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 

Pages 

Improved farm machinery. — Methods of communication. 

— Spiritualization of country life. — Period of settling down. 

— Country school and progress. — Exodus to the cities. — 
Statistics. — Right Honorable James Bryce in America, 
1904. — Relation of country school to new age in country 

life.- — New educational ideal 1— 14 



CHAPTER II 

THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 

An educational creed. — Educational progress in cities. 
— Country and city contrasted. — Equality of educational 
opportunity. — A "square deal" — A Teacher's Creed. — 
Beauty in country life. — Attendance in country schools of 
Illinois. — Chart No. 60. — Three great movements. — The 
problem 1 5—33 

CHAPTER III 

OUTDOOR ART: BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 

Influence of environment. — Inoculation for school im- 
provement. — Conditions in Illinois. — Factors in the prob- 
lem. — Planting and programmes. — Some material. — Seven 
agencies for the beautiful in country life. — Literature on 
trees and forestry. — President Roosevelt and the man who 
"skins" the land. — Consolidated school grounds. — Plea 

for wild flowers, etc. — Excuse no longer valid 34-55 

ix 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 
SCHOOL GARDENS 



Pages 



An experiment in country schools. — A modern school. — 
Education not limited to the " three R's." — Contrast of city 
conditions and country conditions. — Effects of garden work 
in Philadelphia. — " Do-nothing " policy. — Twofold pur- 
pose of school garden in country schools. — A further plea for 
the wild. — Literature on planting. — How to have a school 
garden. — Outline of work for institutes. — Bibliography. — 
The Macdonald school gardens. — Other school gardens \ 56-84 



CHAPTER V 

INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 

Aim of chapter. — Present and future. — Ideal school 
board. — Waste of school funds. — School improvement 
society. — Responsibility of teacher. — Sanitary commis- 
sion. — Work of the twins. — Cure rather than endure. — 
Stove polish and jacket. — Water tank. — Ventilation. — 
Theoretical art interest. — Work of Art Education Society 
of Cleveland. — Traveling art exhibits at teachers' institutes. 

— Course in art reading. — List of books. — Suggestive pro- 
gramme for school social. — Studies of Millet. — Gifts of an 
art friend. — Work of Illinois Congress of Mothers. — The 

old country schoolroom 85-102 

CHAPTER VI 

SCHOOL LIBRARIES 

Growth of libraries. — "Everybody." — School libraries 
in various states. — Do country children need good books ? 

— Plea of poverty on part of school officers. — Teachers and 
right use of books. — Twentieth-century library movement. 



CONTENTS xi 

Pages 

— Traveling school libraries. — Township exercises as one 
means. — Sanitary regulations for traveling libraries. — 
Contents of boxes. — Library work at annual teachers' insti- 
tutes. — List of books on United States history. — Results. 

— School libraries in New York, Massachusetts, West 
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and 

Texas . • . 103-128 



CHAPTER VII 

A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 

Country-school extension work. — Large pupils in school. 

— One object. — Machinery of organization. — Relation of 
school to a boys' club. — Work of boys. — Sugar beets. — 
Growing high-bred corn. — Circulars of Illinois Agricultu- 
ral Extension Department. — Corn and regular school work. 

— By-products of corn. — Reports from boys. — The work 
in various states. — Account of contest and banquet at Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. — Widespread interest in boys' clubs . . 129-157 



CHAPTER VIII 

EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS TO THE COLLEGE OF 
AGRICULTURE 

Excursion a factor. — Value of atrip. — Education for 
the country child. — Things. — Four annual excursions. — 
Character of excursions. — One way of reaching people. — 
Inspiration to boys. — Secret of success. — Programme at 
Wisconsin College of Agriculture. — Illinois Experiment 
Station. — What one boy saw. — Visit to Iowa. — Breeding 
corn. — The "Blue Grays" at Ames. — The corn train. — 
Testing seed corn. — Bulletins 158-174 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX 

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL AND THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE 

Pages 

Who attend in Illinois. — Who do not attend. — Coopera- 
tion of county superintendents. — Educational sessions at 
state round-up. — Need of enlisting the young people. — 
Boys' session of Winnebago County Farmers' Institute. — 
Some reports and papers. — Prize giving. — Boys study 
score card. — Announcement to boys. — How to secure re- 
ports from boys. — Girls' club. — Prizes. — Score card for 
bread. — Useful bulletins 175-200 



CHAPTER X 
THE NEW AGRICULTURE AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



" Spasmodic theorization." — Work of previous chapters. 

— Fundamentals. — Country child and environment. — 
"Ways and means." — Hodge's Nature Study and Life. 

— Attitude of the " educator." — Dean Bailey. — Report of 
Committee on Industrial Education for Country Communi- 
ties. — Bulletins in country schools. — Lectures. — Books 
in traveling libraries. — Agriculture at St. Louis. — Secre- 
tary Wilson on value. — Appropriations by Illinois. — Dr. 
Hopkins on breeding corn. — Funk Brothers' seed farm. — 
Soil investigations. — Prairie Farmer editorial on "fads." 
Who is to fit? — -"Prophets in Israel." — An educational 
campaign. — Dean Davenport on the consolidated country 
school. — A summary 201-225 



CONTENTS xiii 



CHAPTER XI 

THE FINANCIAL PHASE OF THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL 

PROBLEM 

Pages 

Increased usefulness of country schools. — Hard to realize 
change. — • Small schools in various states. — Small school 
not necessarily a poor one. — Dollars-and-cents argument. — 
Some statistics in one county. — Some observations. — 
Amount to be increased. — Better salaries for better teachers. 
— ■ Per capita. — Assessed valuation and rate of taxation. — 
Salary list. — Small schools in one county. — Financial 
phase fundamental 226-239 

CHAPTER XII 

CONSOLIDATION 

Some preliminaries. — First stage. — Consolidation not 
to cheapen. — Views of Honorable Henry Sabin. — Progress 
of consolidation. — Indiana. — Ohio visit. — Illinois. — Art 
at Seward School. — High-school possibilities. — Advan- 
tages and objections — transportation. — Assistant Secre- 
tary Hays on course of study. — What claim? — Summary 
of Superintendent Graham's bulletins 240-281 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Spirit of criticism. — Fitting teachers to teach. — Country- 
school conditions not fully recognized. — Superintendent Gil- 
bert on course of study. — Department for country schools. 
— Normal scholarships in Illinois. — High school at the nor- 
mal school. — Country-school programmes. — Model country 
school with Indiana State Normal School. — Charman's re- 
port on work. — Illinois making a start. — Wisconsin county 
training schools. — Work in Dunn County. — Work at New 
Paltz, New York. — Bibliography. — Work in Michigan . 282-308 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIV 

MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Pages 
Manual training and manual labor. — Table showing 

number of pupils in each grade. — Progress in manual 
training in country schools will be slow. — Opportunity for 
the school to cooperate with the home. — Account of Cot- 
tage Hill School. — The work in Hancock County, Georgia. 
— Manual training in state normal schools. — Report of 
Committee on Manual Training for Rural Schools to the Illi- 
nois Manual Arts Association. — Work in Mower County, 
Minnesota. — Mr. Harvey G. Hatch's work in Winnebago 
County, Illinois. — Possible kinds of hand work. — Refer- 
ence list 309-341 



CHAPTER XV 

A LAST WORD 

Not a final word. — The University of Illinois and the 
country school. — Resolutions at special conference. — For- 
ward step in Wisconsin. — Educational campaigns. — Work 
of the School Improvement League of Maine. — Progress 
in West Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Min- 
nesota, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and other 
states. — The last word 342-366 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig. 

1. An Old New England Schoolhouse Frontispiece 

Page 

2. A Two-Row Corn Cultivator i 

3. A New Country Road 3 

4. A New Means of Communication for the Farm 4 

5. A Steam Roller and a Road Scraper 5 

6. A Farm Scene 7 

7. A Country Road 10 

8. A Country Schoolhouse 11 

9. His First Day 13 

10. Among the Oaks . 16 

11. Among the Oaks 17 

12. An Old Schoolhouse in Winnebago County, Illinois 18 

13. A New Schoolhouse in Winnebago County, Illinois 19 

14. Crab Apple Blossoms beside a Country Brook 21 

15. Where the Water Lilies Grow 23 

16. A Country Road 25 

17. A New. Schoolhouse with Trees 26 

18. Work in the New Schoolhouse 27 

19. Down on the River 29 

20. An Old Schoolhouse 30 

2.1. A New Schoolhouse , .... 31 

22. Noble Elms spared by the Telephone Company 34 

23. Trees should go with the Flag 35 

24. The Four Oaks 37 

25. A Real Playground 38 

26. Standing by their Colors 39 

27. A Shrubbery Detail 41 

28. The Treeless School Grounds 42 

29. Why not on the School Ground ? 43 

30. Treatment of Outbuildings 45 

31. Treatment of Outbuildings 46 

32. Improving Grounds of Consolidated School 47 

33. Vines on the Schoolhouse .... 49 

34. At the Well 50 

35. A Design for the Improvements and Planting of the Seward 

School Grounds between 50 and 51 

36. A Row of Hard Maples 52 

37. The Results of Tree Planting 54 

38. Where the Wild Crab Apple, Plum, etc., are Saved 55 

39. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1903) 57 

40. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1903) 59 

xv 



xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig. Pace 

41. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1903) 61 

42. A School Garden at Home (1904) 63 

43. A School Garden at the Seward Consolidated School (1904) . . 65 

44. A Desolate Schoolhouse 68 

45. A Farm Home near the Desolate Schoolhouse 69 

46. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 70 

47. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 74 

48. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 76 

49. Outline Plan of a Macdonald School Garden, Bowesville, Ontario, 

Canada 77 

50. A Model for a Country School 79 

51. Another Model for a Country School 81 

52. Trees set out in 1905 83 

53. Nature Study 84 

54. A Stove Jacket S7 

55. A Water Tank 89 

56. Studying a Traveling Art Exhibit 91 

57. An Improved Interior 93 

58. Pictures and Books 95 

59. A Room in the Seward Consolidated School 98 

60. A Room in the Seward Consolidated School 99 

61. A Room in the Seward Consolidated School 101 

62. A Country-School Library io^ 

63. Library Case and Reading Table 108 

64. Traveling Libraries for Country Schools: Plan of Disinfection . 112 

65. The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors 122 

66. Some Prize Winners, Members of the Winnebago County Farmer 

Boys' Experiment Club 131 

67. A Prize Winner, Eleven Years Old 132 

68. A Prize Winner, Twelve Years Old 133 

69. With High-Bred Corn 135 

70. With High-Bred Corn 136 

71. A Sugar-Beet Grower 137 

72. Sugar-Beet Growers 138 

73. Brother and Sister among their Beets 141 

74. This Boy Hopes Soon to Take a Course at an Agricultural 

College 142 

75. Some High-Bred Corn 147 

76. Bottles showing Chemical Analysis of Corn 147 

77. Testing the Germination of Corn with Plates of Sand . . . . 151 

78. Some Prize Winners of the Winnebago County Girls' Home 

Culture Club 152 

79. The Excursion of Winnebagoes (1903) in front of the College of 

Agriculture, University of Illinois 158 

80. The Illinois College of Agriculture 159 

81. The Cattle Barn, Illinois College of Agriculture 161 

82. Looking at the Live Stock, Ames (Iowa) Experiment Station . 165 

83. At the Oats Breeding Plots, Ames, Iowa 167 

84. Inspecting Alfalfa at Ames, Iowa 168 

85. The Famous "Blue Grays" on Experiment Farm, Ames, Iowa . 169 

86. Winnebagoes "on the Trail" to Madison, Wisconsin, June, 1905 171 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 

Fig. Page 

87. The Arrival at Madison: in Front of the New College of Agri- 

culture, University of Wisconsin 173 

88. Country Children in School 176 

89. A Boy at his Desk in an Old-Fashioned Country School . . . 179 

90. Country Children in School 181 

91. The Boys' Session of the "Winnebago County Farmers' Institute, 

I9p4 •••.••. l8 3 

92. A Subject for Consideration at the Farmers' Institute .... 186 

93. A Subject for Consideration at the Farmers' Institute .... 187 

94. Studying Corn 189 

95. Studying Corn 192 

96. Pure-Bred Cattle 193 

97. Studies in Corn 193 

98. A Cross Section of a Kernel of Corn 196 

99. The Cooking Class, Macdonald Consolidated School, Middle- 

ton, Nova Scotia, Canada . 199 

100. Root Growth of Corn at Time of Tasseling 200 

10 1. Corn and Soy Beans on Experiment Field, Winnebago County, 

Illinois 203 

102. Soy Beans on Experiment Field, Winnebago County, Illinois . 205 

103. A Traveling Library for District Schools : Works on Agriculture 

and Country Life 209 

104. An Exhibit of Corn and Oats at the St. Louis Exposition . . 214 

105. A Little Literary Man studying Corn 217 

106. The Teacher's Corner in an Old-Fashicned Country Schoolhouse 221 

107. A Type of Small School in Wmnebago County, Illinois . . . 227 

108. Another Typical Country Schoolhouse 233 

109. The First Consolidated School Building in Illinois : Seward 

Township, Winnebago County 240 

no. The Buildings abandoned for the Consolidated School . . . 241 

hi. Transportation in Indiana 244 

112. Transportation in Indiana 245 

113. Going Home from School in Illinois: Temperature Twelve 

Degrees below Zero 246 

114. The New Way in Ohio 247 

115. A Centralized Country-School Building, Green Township, Trum- 

bull County, Ohio 252 

116. School Building at Kingsville, Ohio, where Centralization of 

Schools began in 1892 253 

117. A Map of Ohio showing Centralized Schools, 1905 256 

118. A Map of Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, 1905 . . 258 

119. Transportation Routes, Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, 

Ohio 259 

120. The Centralized School at Gustavus Township, Trumbull 

County, Ohio 261 

121. The Centralized School at Lee's Creek, Wayne Township, 

Clinton County, Ohio 263 

122. An Abandoned Two-Story Brick Schoolhouse in Wayne Town- 

ship, Clinton County, Ohio 264 

123. Abandoned One-Room Schoolhouse in Wayne Township, 

Clinton County, Ohio 267 



xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig. Page 

124. An Old Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia . 268 

125. A New Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia . 270 

126. An Old Academy at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia . . 271 

127. New Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia . . 273 

128. Old Schoolhouse, No. 2, at Williamsburg, North Carolina . . 275 

129. Old Schoolhouse, No. 3, at Williamsburg, North Carolina . . 277 

130. New Building for Nos. 2 and 3 Consolidated, Williamsburg, 

North Carolina 278 

131. The Interior of Schoolhouse, District 99, Winnebago County, 

Illinois 279 

132. The Wisconsin Training School at Menomonie 285 

133. A Model Country School connected with the Indiana State Nor- 

mal School 291 

134. An Interior View of the Model Country School connected with 

the Indiana State Normal School 295 

135. Teachers' Training School at Menomonie, Wisconsin .... 299 

136. Teacher and Pupils in a Rural School in Dunn County, Wisconsin 305 

137. The Beginning of Manual Training in a Country School of 

Winnebago County, Illinois 310 

138. Manual Training in a Winnebago County District School . . 311 

139. Manual Training Products in Cottage Hill School, near Spring- 

field, Illinois 314 

140. The Workshop of Cottage Hill School. Workbenches used for 

Lunch Counters 315 

141. Articles made in a Rural School in Dunn County, Wisconsin . 318 

142. The Manual Training Class at Work in a Rural School in Edgar 

County, Illinois 319 

143. Plan of Workbench for Country Schools 323 

144. Plan of Tool Rack to accompany Workbench 325 

145. Manual Training in a Country School of Winnebago County, 

Illinois 32S 

146. Manual Training in a Country School of Winnebago County, 

Illinois 329 

147. Winnebago County Teachers doing Tool Work at the March 

(1906) Annual Teachers' Institute ^^3 

148. A House constructed by Grammar-School Boys, to be furnished 

by the Children of the Primary Grades 335 

149. Learning to Cook. Manual Training for Girls 336 

150. Macdonald Consolidated School, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. 

Manual Training Room 337 

151. A Schoolhouse built in the Early Fifties 344 

152. Bare and Uninviting 350 

153. Pleasant to Look Upon 353 

154. Such a Tree as this Ought to be in Every School Yard . . . 356 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



CHAPTER I 

THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 

Truly thi's is a new age for country life. In a material 
way this truth seems to need no proof. The self-binder 
and the cream separator are tangible things, labor-saving 
and profitable. High-bred varieties of grains and fruits 




Fig. 



A Two-Row Corn Cultivator 



are grown with marvelous results ; while the facilities for 
quick communication in the use of the telephone, in the 
daily delivery of mail, and in the trolley line put the farm 
in close touch with the whole world. 



2 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The past quarter of a century has witnessed a great 
development in all things relating to the farm. The story 
seems too marvelous to believe. The Illinois country lad 
who, in the centennial year of 1876, plowed corn and 
bound grain by hand in the hot July sun little dreamed 
of the conquests to be made in the domain of agriculture. 
When, as a city man, in 1904 he helped to observe another 
centennial of the beginning of our national expansion, by 
attending the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the Palace 
of Agriculture told him the new story. Invention has done 
much to lighten the burden of the farmer and to make 
his efforts more remunerative by furnishing the right kind 
of machinery. The exhibits told the story of labor-saving 
machinery. As a country boy, husking corn during the 
frosts of November, he thought not of selection and 
breeding of corn. As a man, standing before the exhibit 
of the Illinois Experiment Station in the Palace of Agri- 
culture at «St. Louis, he saw the results of seven years 
of patient, careful work in the development of high-bred 
corn. Science at last is working for and with the farmer. 

As a boy, plowing the rich soil of central Illinois, little 
thought had he about soil fertility. To him, as a man, 
comes the soil-survey bulletin with county map showing 
types of soil in areas as small as ten-acre lots. Inocula- 
tion of soil with bacteria for certain fertility-restoring 
crops seems a fairy tale. And all this in the short space 
of twenty-five years. 

No less significant are the new methods of communica- 
tion in bringing a different spirit to country life. No 
longer is the farmer compelled to roam over half a town- 
ship in his efforts to secure extra help for his threshing or 
harvesting. A few minutes at the telephone arrange all the 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 



details for " swapping work." Or it may be that the binder 
or mower has broken down right in the midst of a very 
busy time. The old way was to leave the machine in the 
field and let the hired help loaf around, while the farmer 
hitched up and drove several miles for the needed repairs, 
and then perhaps had to telegraph to the factory in a 




Fig. 3. A New Country Road 

distant city. The loss of a few hours meant the loss of 
several hundred dollars' worth of golden grain if the 
weather was bad. To-day the long-distance phone in 
three minutes calls up supply house or factory ; the 
needed machinery is sent out by the night express, and 
the early morning trolley car brings the needed relief to 
the farmer's door ready for the beginning of a new day's 
work. The average farmer is quick to take advantage of 



4 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

all this because there is money in it. But how about the 
improvement of the country school ? Has it kept pace with 
this material progress ? Is there money in that also ? 

In 1876 the country lad, who dreamed not of telephones, 
self-binders, corn with a high percentage of protein, alfalfa 
bacteria, or the coreless apple, made his weekly journey 
Saturday afternoons to the country store for the mail. Per- 
haps there was a letter from the folks back in Indiana. Cer- 
tainly there was a weekly paper or two; if only one, it was a 
party organ of the same political faith as that of the boy's 




Fig. 4. A New Means of Communication for the Farm 

father. From such sources the boy read the news a week 
old and incidentally found out that all the wisdom and patri- 
otic virtue necessary for the preservation of free institutions 
was found in one party only. The weekly religious paper 
applied the same narrowing policy to its particular field. 

To-day how different ! For years the government at 
national expense had been delivering mail to the city 
people, but now the farmer has his daily mail at the ex- 
pense of the same government. News a week old, with 
market quotations as ancient, does not satisfy the farmer 
to-day. He demands the great metropolitan daily, and the 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 5 

post-office department delivers it to him by ten o'clock in the 
morning. He wants to know what was doing last night at 
Port Arthur, yesterday's total receipts and top prices for 
live stock in Chicago, or the attitude of patriots in legisla- 
tive halls towards election reforms or railway rate regula- 
tions. Strange to say, many farmers fought against all these 
innovations in the way of quick methods of communication, 



^Ep»» 




1 






ll 






■• ■■.. ■ ■ ■■ 



Fig. 5. A Steam Roller and a Road Scraper 

urging that the daily delivery of mail would increase taxes 
and that the mail boxes would be robbed by bad boys ; that 
the trolley car going across the fields would shade the 
corn too much and that the yield per acre would thus be 
decreased. But they survived the change and prospered 
under it. They recognize the material benefits, and further 
changes will not be so difficult to accomplish. 

But how about the children in the district school, without 
maps or necessary apparatus, and with text-books in history 



6 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

and geography copyrighted in 1883 and the same book 
which has been in almost constant use by various members 
of the family since 1893 ? Is the telephone, daily mail, or 
trolley line to touch only the financial or social interests 
of the farmer ? Are these his only interests ? 

Things spiritual as well as material make us conscious 
of the new country life. The spiritualization of country 
life now going on requires closer study to catch its full 
significance than does a survey of farm machinery or 
growing crops. The farm home is no longer isolated. 
Newer and better comforts of life are coming to the 
country home. Music, magazines, high-grade literature, 
are creating better ideals of living. The improved mate- 
rial conditions of the American farmer make possible a 
richer life" for the American country home. We have 
passed from the period of settling the country into that 
of settling down in the same country, and he who would 
attempt to create a new educational ideal with reference to 
the district school must, if possible, be imbued with the 
spirit of the new life that is unfolding. The significance 
of this change is thus expressed in a recent editorial in 
The World's Work. 

In a sense we have settled the country; and now we are beginning to 
settle down. We are reaching a period of an equilibrium of opportunity. 

This large fact explains many changes in the direction of our 
activities, and a corresponding change that is taking place in our 
national character ; for what we do makes us what we are. It is a 
key to the larger tendencies in present American life. 

The difference between a period of settling and a period of settling 
down is the difference between adventure and development. It is 
expressing itself in a hundred ways, — in intensive instead of exten- 
sive farming, in the concentration of industry instead of duplicating 
it, in building better homes instead of seeking other homes, in doing 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 



the jobs we have in hand better rather than seeking other jobs. All 
this means greater efficiency. It means sticking closer to business. 
It has much to do with the production of great wealth, which makes 
the last decade a period in our history which stands out by itself. It has 
much to do with the great movements to consolidate industry. It 
brings us back to all kinds of home problems, — to the proper building 
and government of our cities and to the almost universal tendency to 
improve country life. 

Now this improvement in country life is manifested in 
better homes and barns, better roads, and the substitution 
of the carriage for the old lumber wagon for church and 



; , 






- 







Fig. 6. A Farm Scene 

social visits. The increasing use of flowers, trees, and 
shrubbery around the country home tells of the growth of 
a love for the beautiful in country life. The great farmers' 
institute movement is contributing to the intellectual growth 
in country life. Has the improvement of the country school 
kept pace with other things ? If so, why are so many peo- 
ple leaving the farm and moving to the cities to educate 
their children ? Would good schools out in the fields help 
the movement back to the country ? Is it desirable that 
people continue to drift to the great centers of population ? 
Why are the country schools so small, and where are the 
people ? 



8 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

According to the United States census reports the pop- 
lation of Winnebago County, Illinois, including the city of 
Rockford, increased 19.7 per cent in ten years, the popu- 
lation in 1890 being only 39,938, while in 1900 it reached 

47,845- 

The following table gives the population of each civil 
unit in the county. The civil units outside of the city of 
Rockford are properly called " towns," though many call 
them " townships." The report shows how in ten years 
the city of Rockford has increased in population, while the 
country communities have decreased. 

Census 
1900 1890 

Burritt 658 733 

Cherry Valley (with village) 1,014 1,105 

Durand (with village) 1,256 1,223 

Guilford 1,042 969 

Harlem S37 695 

Harrison 550 577 

Laona \ . . 577 664 

New Milford 761 S65 

Owen 667 762 

Pecatonica (with village) 15677 J ,796 

Rockton (with village) 1,561 1,492 

Roscoe (with village) 811 894 

Seward 1,022 960 

Shirland 520 491 

Winnebago (with village) 1,216 1,422 

Rockford 2,767 1,618 

City of Rockford . . . .*. 3^051 23,584 

An analysis of the above table shows that ten county 
towns had decreased in population, while the city of Rock- 
ford had increased 7467, or 31.6 per cent. The town of 
Rockford shows an increase of 1 149, but that increase is 
suburban to Rockford, and a greater portion has been 
annexed to the city since the federal census. 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 9 

The growth of the city of Rockford and the country com- 
munities outside since the organization of the city and 
county is shown in the following table. 





Winnebago 


City of 




Winnebago 


City of 


Year 


County 


Rockford 


Year 


County 


Rockford 


1840 . 


. . 4,609 




1880 . 


• • 17,376 


i3» I2 9 


1850 . 


. . 9,680 


2,093 


1890 . 


• • 16,354 


23.5S4 


1S60 . 


• • i7,5 12 


6,979 


1900 . 


• • 16,794 


3*>°5 [ 


1870 . 


. . 18,252 


11,049 









The increase in population for 1900 in Winnebago County 
is because of suburban population, as the city of Rockford 
is included in the town of Rockford. In truth, there has 
been a steady decrease in country population since 1870. 

I do not offer a few statistics from one county as proof 
positive that similar conditions obtain in every county in 
the United States ; but if small country schools indicate 
a decrease in population, then the reports of nearly every 
state superintendent in the great Middle West and in some 
eastern states verify the fact. At any rate, if any teacher is 
interested in finding out all she can about her own county, 
she can ask the county clerk for the United States census 
reports on file in his office. A few figures there of local 
reference might have as great an educational value in the 
schoolroom to country children as the study of the popu- 
lation of the fifteen largest cities in the world. 

It is not expected that every one born in the country 
should remain in the country. That would be a serious 
mistake for several reasons. But is there not a tendency 
to disparage country life and interests ? 

The Right Honorable James Bryce of England, author 
of The American Commonwealth, visited America in 1870, 
in 1883, and again in 1904. In the Outlook for March 25, 



io 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



1905, appeared the first of Mr. Bryce's two articles on 
"America Revisited." Both articles are worthy of seri- 
ous study by every country school-teacher. He bears 
testimony that this is a new age for country life in the 




Fig. 7. A Country Road 

United States. In speaking of the changes of a quarter of 
a century, with special reference to the growth of manu- 
factures, Mr. Bryce writes as follows : 

The growth of manufactures might have been predicted half a 
century ago, for even then it was known that there were vast deposits 
of coal and iron, that the American people were highly inventive, and 
that the increase of population would create a prodigious demand for 
goods. One result, however, of the extension of manufactures may 
not have been so fully foreseen. I mean the change in the character 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 



1 1 



of the occupations and dwelling places of the people. They are ceas- 
ing to be a folk of country dwellers. It is not only that the great 
cities extend themselves with amazing speed, and that many of the 
mineral areas are becoming so covered with villages as to differ little 
from cities. There is a general disposition to migrate from rural dis- 
tricts to centers of population, where a brisker life and more amuse- 
ments can be enjoyed. The change is all the more remarkable because 
agriculture continues to be prosperous. It has been accelerated by 
those applications of machinery to agricultural work which enable 




Fig. 8. A Country Schcolhouse 

a farm to be worked by a smaller staff than was formerly needed. 
Wherever one travels in the eastern and northern states one sees 
new towns rising along the lines of railroad and the older towns spread- 
ing out. The eye as well as the census table tells one that the people 
are becoming a people subject to city influences. Already, though the 
population which lives outside towns with less than eight thousand 
inhabitants is numerically larger (almost two thirds), still it is urban 
ways and habits, urban opinion, urban tendencies, that are beginning 
to prevail in the United States. This process goes on steadily. It 
will go on all the faster because the good land of the Northwest has 
now — so one is told — been practically all taken up, while even the 
irrigation of the dry lands of the South-Central West cannot redress 
the balance by providing a new rural population to set against the 
increase of the cities. This is one of the new facts which strikes a 



12 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

visitor, and especially an Englishman. Thirty-five years ago England 
was already a country of city -dwellers, and the United States seemed 
by contrast a country of agriculturalists. Before long the United 
States will be like England, and, one may almost add, like Germany 
also, a land in which the urban type of mind and life will preponder- 
ate. The change may be regrettable. Jefferson would have regretted 
it. But it is unavoidable. It will tend to increase that nervous strain, 
that sense of tension, which Americans are already deemed to show 
as compared with the more sluggish races of Europe. There will be 
less repose than ever in life. Health may not suffer, nor the death 
rate increase, for cities can now be made to show as low a mortality 
as most country places. In London we have brought down the rate 
since 1870 from twenty-three to seventeen per thousand. Yet the phys- 
ical strength of the average man may not be quite the same ; and his 
mental constitution will almost certainly be different. It may not be in- 
ferior, — indeed, it may be more alert and versatile ; but it will be different. 

Is the continued migration from the country to the city 
unavoidable? It is true that about all of the best land 
is taken. Irrigation will increase the acreage available for 
farming. But it seems to me that scientific methods of 
farming — intensive farming — will make possible the sup- 
port of a yet larger population not urban in " type of mind 
and life." The trouble has been that too often the country 
child in his education has been led to believe that agricul- 
ture does not furnish sufficient intellectual development 
and financial success to warrant a longer stay on the farm. 
Hence the pilgrimage to the city, where " a brisker life and 
more amusements can be enjoyed." The influence of these 
has not always been of the most wholesome character. 
Many a boy has quit the farm, not because of the hard 
work only, but because day after day, month after month, 
he experienced only hard work. 

The training in the country school of the future should 
aim to conserve all that is best and richest in a" type of 



THE NEW COUNTRY LIFE 



13 



mind and life " distinctly country. The possibilities of intel- 
lectual growth, literary culture, and social enjoyment are as 
great — or will be so — among the clover blossoms in the 
field as among the 
flowers blooming in the 
city park ; in raising high- 
bred corn as in practic- 
ing law or selling ribbon 
over a counter in a large 
department store. 

I plead for the spirit- 
ualization of country life. 
Education must do this. 
A new educational ideal 
in the country school 
will lead the boys and 
girls to see more of the 
" divine joy of living " in 
the country. These boys 
and girls on the farms 
are the men and women 
of a great to-morrow in 
country life and in the 
life of the nation as well. 
The country school 
should be so organized 
as to meet the new con- FlG - 9- His First Da y 

ditions of life. It ought not to be continually necessary for 
country people to desert the farm for the city that their 
children may have art, music, libraries, lectures, and social 
intercourse. The proper organization and administration of 
the country schools will bring to the farm all these things. 




14 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

These spiritualizing influences, unfettered in the freedom 
of simple country life,' unobstructed by the dissipations of 
an artificial, complex life of a great metropolitan center, 
will produce the choicest flower of our civilization. A 
nobler dignity will be conferred upon agriculture. This 
educational product is the new type of the American 
farmer, a man strong in his personal virtues and mighty in 
his influence for civic righteousness. This is an ideal, but 
it is a practical ideal. Already tilings done encourage the 
hope of realization. It is true that not much can be done 
with many adults. Their ideals are of the past. The great 
promise, the great hope, is with country children. 



CHAPTER II 

THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 

If I were to formulate an educational creed for the 
country school, it would contain but two articles, namely: 
(i) the' country child is entitled to every whit as good 
an educational opportunity as that enjoyed by the most 
favored city child attending the American public school; 
(2) to secure this right for the country child the country 
people must expend more money on the country school and 
expend it in a better way. 

I believe in consolidation, and my educational decalogue 
for school officers and teachers may be reduced to one 
simple commandment, namely, Thou shalt enrich and 
enlarge the life of the country child. 

This is a simple creed. It does not claim that the country 
school shall be the same kind of a school as the city school. 
There is a difference of environment that must be con- 
sidered. The country school for its specific work should 
be just as efficient as the best city school is for its specific 
work. There are certain fundamentals that are common 
to both systems, and it is the country child's right to have 
these fundamentals taught him without so much educational 
waste. The second article of the creed recognizes the fact 
that as a general rule one cannot get something for noth- 
ing, while on the educational commandment in uno hang 
all the law and the prophets, so far as patron and teacher 
are concerned -in their training of the country child. 

15 



i6 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The last fifteen or twenty years have witnessed great 
advancement in the educational interests of the towns and 
cities. Large sums of money have been expended for 
material equipment in the way of better buildings, labora- 
tories, libraries, manual training, etc. Superintendents and 
teachers in cities have become more efficient and are better 




Fig. io. Among the Oaks 



paid. A strong effort has been made to adjust the course 
of study to practical conditions of life. Business courses 
have been introduced into high schools, and the general 
public seems to manifest a deeper interest in the entire 
educational machinery. The growth of towns and cities 
has been phenomenal, and the resources of the people have 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



17 



been taxed to the utmost at times to provide every child 
with the best educational advantages. . 

Many farmers, feeling that the country school did not 
furnish sufficient training for their children, have moved 
to the cities to be under 
the influence of better 
schools, or have sent 
their children to board 
in the nearest town. 
Some have complained 
that the city school has 
educated their children 
away from the farm. A 
moment's reflection is 
sufficient to show that 
the city school is for the 
city child, with a course 
of study more or less 
suited to conditions in 
which the city child must 
earn a living. It is not 
expected that a city high 
school will teach country 
children much about the 
farm and its interests. 
The city child, who after 
leaving school enters a 
profession or works in FlG - "■ Among the Oaks 

the counting-room, store, or factory, does not need to know 
about the care and composition of soil, rotation of crops, 
breeding and selection and care of animals and plants, feed- 
ing standards for stock, etc. But the country boy, who 




1 8 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

remains on the farm, must know about these things, if he 
is to be a successful farmer in this new age of scientific 
agriculture; and the country school should help him along 
these lines. The educational uplift, in its fullest sense, 
cannot come to the country child from "three R's " alone. 
These certainly need to be better taught ; but to claim 
that these alone are sufficient is a refusal to see progress. 




Fig. 12. An Old Schoolhouse in Winnebago County, Illinois 

As well ask the farmer to make a success of life with the 
machinery and methods of thirty years ago. 

Let us give the country school all credit for the great 
work it has done. What we desire for it is that it shall 
improve in at least the same ratio as the rest of rural institu- 
tions. It is to do a still greater work. What are the most 
efficient means to increase the usefulness of the country 
school ? This is the question that should appeal most 
strongly to the American farmer. However much we may 
disagree as to the ways and means, any one who has given 
any serious study to the country school in all its relations 
must conclude that there is need of increasing its usefulness. 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



19 



Yes, there is a wide gulf between the alley of a great 
city and a country lane ; the children loitering along each 
have to be reached in different ways. At the meeting of 
the Department of Superintendence at Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin, February, 1905, Mr. Ben Blewett of St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, very forcibly contrasts the city system with the 
country system. Mr. Blewett was a member of the Jury of 
Awards, Group 
I, Elementary 
Education, at 
the Louisiana 
Purchase Expo- 
sition. In his 
paper at Mil- 
waukee, on "Les- 
sons from the 
United States 
Exhibit of Ele- 
mentary Educa- 
tion," he speaks 
as follows, with 
reference to the 





1a\IW /'J^' : - 




m i 

1- 




:. "; _ -. ,. ■ • . '■ - 





Fig. 13. A New Schoolhouse in Winnebago 
County, Illinois 



problems of the city system of education, in an effort to 
secure the city child in his heaven-born rights. 

The great mass of humanity compacts by centripetal force till life 
in its congested portions is distorted out of all semblance to natural 
health. A home becomes a few square feet of standing room in a 
caravansary, and the child is deprived even of the solace of a neigh- 
bor's cellar door for a sliding place ; no refuge anywhere, — the sky, 
the far-off roof of an artificial canyon ; the earth, a floor of granite ; his 
neighbor, the fellow who crowds him. 

This seems like tragedy to us who, when children, looked through 
clear air up to the sun and talked with fairies under sheltering trees. 



20 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

How can you educate into decent citizenship a child pent up this way? 
Here is a question peculiar to the great city. And it should be the 
glory of our profession that there have been hearts that throbbed at the 
pathos of it all, and brains that joyed in contending with the difficulties. 

In vivid contrast to the above, Mr. Blewett paints the 
country-school problem. He says: 

The condition of the rural school is the problem that involves the 
welfare of more people than any other. The importance of this prob- 
lem lies both in the number immediately affected and indirectly in the 
potency of these lives in giving character to the nation. However 
enticing it may be, the life of the great towns is artificial and mis- 
shapen by the pressure of the great throngs. In its atmosphere the 
human forces are devitalized and dwindle into abnormal weaknesses. 
This is so true that the great enterprises of the city are sustained only 
by the infusion of men who have held plow handles or wielded the ax. 

The old story of the giant Antaeus, like all great myths, is but the 
embodiment of a natural law. To get his strength and to hold his 
strength the child must touch his mother earth, must struggle with 
the cold and heat, must know how plants grow, must experience how 
the knot yields to the skillful wedge, must wrestle with labors that test 
his endurance, and must feel the joy of his own masterfulness. The 
demands of his life develop in the country boy a self-reliance and a 
faculty for adaptation which, though hidden under a cloak of awkward- 
ness, give him a power not possessed by the child who has not had 
this natural training. It is from such people that the leaders of the 
world come. 

The great centers of population act as maelstroms which gather 
into their swirling rush all that the outermost circles of their influence 
can reach. To counteract this tendency, to hold the youth on the 
farms, so to organize his life there that his natural longing for social 
intercourse will be satisfied, — to accomplish these ends some of the 
strongest efforts of our schoolmasters are being made. 

This is what I am pleading for, — the enlargement and 
enrichment of the life of the country child. 

It is true that many of the leaders in finance, statecraft, 
and great mercantile enterprises have come from the 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



21 



country. This is ofttimes offered as an argument that the 
country school that can produce such material needs no 
improvement. But the greatness of a Lincoln or a Garfield 
can hardly be attributed to the district school alone ; and 
so with many others now holding responsible positions. 
They had an educational training in home duties on the 
farm, and possibly they could have made a success in life 




Fig. 14. Crab Apple Blossoms beside a Country Brook 



in spite of schools. We pick out the half-dozen boys in 
a county, perhaps, who have become famous. But how 
about the great number unheard of in after life ? Did they 
play their part well in the struggle ? Did they enjoy their 
rights as children in the country schools ? Besides, the 
general level of intelligence has been raised since the boy- 
hood of the man from the farm, now either a merchant 
prince or a learned jurist in a great city. The competition 



2 2 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

is keener ; new conditions obtain ; a new industrial age pre- 
sents problems whose solution will test fully the stability 
of our free institutions. Hence the boy who leaves the 
country school for the city must be much better prepared 
than the boy of thirty years ago. 

But perhaps we should not be overanxious about the five 
or ten per cent who doubtless will succeed in spite of any 
or all schools. Our chief concern in this new age should 
be to secure an equality of educational opportunity for the 
great mass of country children who get no other train- 
ing for life's duties, so far as books are concerned, than 
that acquired in a miserable building with bleak, unkempt 
grounds, with no library or necessary educational equip- 
ment, with a short school year of four or five months, and 
all in charge of an untrained, underpaid teacher. This 
picture is not overdrawn, but I do not wish to dwell on its 
dark side. My belief has been that to help along an insti- 
tution or an individual that needs help is to select the good 
qualities and to magnify them in order to show how the 
reform may be effected. While this is true, yet let us not 
be carried away with the soulful eloquence of the patriot 
who on stated occasions tells us that the public school is 
the safety of our republic, — or words to that effect, — and 
that the teacher is doing priceless service to the country. 
To be sure, this service is almost without price, reaching 
as low as $28 per month for four months of the year. The 
lowest salary paid a janitor by the city of Rockford is $320 
per year for taking care of a four-room school building. 

The country child has rights. He is entitled to a square 
deal in opportunities to enjoy the best that the civilization 
of the world thus far has produced. To him should come 
art, music, and literature. Millionaires are founding libraries 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



2 3 



and art galleries for city children, but who is doing a like 
service for the children living in the fields ? True, a poem, 
a picture, or a song, as an educational agent, is likely to 
be regarded as a fad by the man whose mind for the last 
thirty years has run chiefly to corn and hogs. Such a man 
thinks that there is no use in putting a five-thousand-dollar 
education on a fifty- 
cent boy. As a plain 
business proposi- 
tion there is no use 
in wasting 'so much 
good money on such 
an insignificant 
thing. But this kind 
of man is more likely 
to give a fifty-cent 
education to a five- 
thousand-dollar boy, 
— a ten-thousand- 
dollar boy, perhaps, 
in possibilities. 
With charity for 
such a father, let us 
do the best we can for his children as God gives us the 
ability to see the best. 

More than all else, the country child has a right to that 
inspirational leadership which can come only from the gen- 
uine teacher. At the beginning of this chapter was given 
an educational creed of two articles, acceptable, I trust, to 
country patrons, school officers, and teachers. Following is 
a "Teacher's Creed " that is worth quoting. 




Fig. 15. Where the Water Lilies Grow 



24 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



A Teacher's Creed 

I believe in boys and girls, the men and women of a great 
to-morrow ; that whatsoever the boy soweth the man shall reap. I 
believe in the curse of ignorance, in the efficacy of schools, in the 
dignity of teaching, and in the joy of serving another. I believe in 
wisdom as revealed in human lives, as well as in the pages of a printed 
book ; in lessons taught not so much by precept as by example ; in 
ability to work with the hands as well as to think with the head; in 
everything that makes life large and lovely. I believe in beauty in the 
schoolroom, in the home, in daily life, and out of doors. I believe in 
laughter, in love, in all ideals and distant hopes that lure us on. I 
believe that every hour of every day we receive a just reward for all 
we are and all we do. I believe in the present and its opportunities, in 
the future and its promises, and in the divine joy of living. Amen. 

Edwin Osgood Grover 



There are seven " I believes " in the above, and the 
credo seems complete. It seems to me that nothing should 
be added or taken away. A teacher believing and living 
such a creed in the country school will be an inspirational 
force to country children. The country school- needs more 
of wisdom in human lives. Too often the wisdom as re- 
vealed in what men have said or done in the past, as recorded 
on the printed page, is considered the only educational 
material worth while. Such a teacher will teach by example 
the true dignity of " work with the hands," and banish the 
false idea that an education will somehow enable one to 
get a living without work. 

A teacher living this creed will teach her children to see 
and appreciate the wondrous beauty of country life, — the 
country road, the cluster of oak trees, the clover field, the 
trailing wild grapevine, the wild flowers, the wild crab tree, 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



25 



and the babbling brook. She will help to spiritualize 
country thought and life, for she believes " in beauty in 
the schoolroom, in the home, in daily life, and out of doors." 
Such a teacher cannot be content with merely drawing her 
salary while the schoolhouse and grounds remain cheer- 
less and desolate. In some way the forces of the district 
will be organized for better things. The parents will be 
reached through the children, for the teacher believes " in 
all ideals and distant hopes that lure us on." Her salary is 




Fig. 16. A Country Road 



what? you ask. I do not know. She belongs to that small 
class of public servants who earn a great deal more than 
they receive. It may be that in lives transformed by her 
influence is a compensation greater than gold. At any 
rate, in " the joy of serving another" there comes the 
hourly " reward for all we are and all we do." If every 
country school-teacher in the United States could only 
grasp the true significance, of present conditions and future 



26 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



possibilities of the country school, could have faith in the 
inspirational power of a life illumined with " the divine joy 
of living," — in short, if every country school-teacher would 
actually live the above creed for five years, the nation would 
witness the greatest change ever wrought in the history of 
the American public school. 

For the last twenty years the interests of the city school 
have held the center of the stage. The deliberations of 




Fig. 17. A New Schoolhouse with Trees 



educational gatherings have been almost exclusively con- 
fined to the consideration of problems of organization and 
management of educational systems in great centers of 
population. The reason for this seeming neglect of the 
country school is not far to seek. The tremendous growth 
of the population in our cities, due in part to unrestricted 
immigration, made the problem of caring for these hundreds 
of thousands of children in these cities the most pressing 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



27 



problem of the hour. It was natural, then, that our efforts 
should be directed citywards instead of countrywards. 
Now that we have made progress in the solution, and are 
witnessing a remarkable reaction in favor of country life, 
due to increased ease of transportation and communication, 
the country-school problem is the one of prime importance. 
Until recently one might scan in vain any programme of 
a teachers' association for a " country-school section "or a 
discussion of some phase of the country-school problem. 
There are still 
many good 'peo- 
ple who believe 
that ' all wisdom 
will die with the 
city-school man. 
It may be that 
the country- 
school man is to 
blame for the 
neglect of this 
most important 
part of the edu- 
cational field, 

namely, the country school. Is there any considerable num- 
ber of children attending the country schools, — enough, at 
least, to make it worth while to consider them for an hour 
or so during a three days' meeting of a great state teachers' 
association; or to be considered worthy of a column in a 
school journal; or important enough for a two-line notice 
in the press dispatch ? Let us see. In Illinois a graded 
school is one employing two teachers or more, while an 
ungraded school is a one-teacher school. According to State 




Fig. 18. Work in the New Schoolhouse 



28 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Superintendent Bayliss's report for the year ending June 30, 
1904, the enrollment in Illinois for that year was as follows : 

Pupils in graded schools 660,336 

Pupils in ungraded schools 318,218 

Total 978>554 

Further : 

Number of graded schools (including high schools) . . 2,218 
Number of ungraded schools 10,677 

Total 1 2,895 

Also: 

Average number of days per year for each pupil in graded 

schools . • 158 

Average number of days per year for each pupil in un- 
graded schools 94 

Again : 

Number of teachers in graded schools 1 5,174 

Number of teachers in ungraded schools 12,297 

Total 27,47 1 

Other statistics will appear in their proper places. Enough 
are given here to show that, for Illinois, 3 18,21 8 pupils taught 
by 12,297 teachers in 10,677 schools do offer opportunity 
for educational study, especially as the country has not yet 
an equality of privilege as to length of the school year. 
Superintendent Bayliss adds, " But, notwithstanding this 
very considerable inequality of privilege and the number of 
lame districts, not all of the progress has been made in the 
more favored schools." 

The conditions for Illinois are about the same as for the 
other states of the great Middle West. The United States 
Department of Education has not yet classified schools 
so as to show the number of one-room country schools in 
the United States, with enrollment, etc. Chart No. 60 — a 
part of the exhibit of the United States Department of 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



29 



Education at St. Louis — was a comparison of the city and 
country schools for the year ending June 30, 1902. But 
on this chart " cities" meant eight thousand or more people, 
while " country " meant everything below eight thousand. 
This is not a very good division for the student who would 















' 4Bfl 


IIa 


is % m 












HwLr-- f 


x ■ x:l : 
• 


4. 


-"■ 














SE 


:'-'*' :S '* - ' 






*v* 














r> •!/"' 



Fig. 19. Down on the River 

like to know the number of children in the distinctively one- 
room country schools. However, the chart is here given, 
and the reader may judge whether in the nation at large 
there is a country-school interest of sufficient magnitude for 
a passing notice. 

Chart No. 60, St. Louis, 1904 



Population . . . 
School enrollment 
Average attendance 
Teachers .... 
Buildings . . . 
Value of school property- 
Expenditure for teaching and supervision 
Total expenditure for schools . . 



Per 


Cent 


Cities 


Country 


32.6 


67.4 


26.2 


73-8 


28.7 


7i-3 


20.6 


79-4 


37 


96-3 


59-3 


40.7 


44-3 


55-7 


47.2 


52.8 



30 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



As was stated above, the column headed " Cities " included 
cities with a population of eight thousand or more. The 
report of the Commissioner of Education for 1902 gave 
five hundred and eighty cities as the number to be included 
in the first column. Study these figures. 

Yes, this a big country; and the bigness of it flashed 
upon my mind at the closing meeting of the " Ohio River 




Fig. 20. An Old Schoolhouse 

Tour" in the educational campaign recently conducted by 
State Superintendent Miller in the Panhandle State. From 
that West Virginia town to my own home is four hundred 
miles to the northwest. Then go four hundred miles more 
to the northwest, and we come to the Falls of St. Anthony 
and the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Here take 
the North Coast Limited on the Northern Pacific, and one 
must needs ride two thousand miles more before arriving 
at Portland, the place of the Lewis and Clark Exposition. 
This is a magnificent domain, into which are constantly com- 
ing men, women, and children less favored in educational 
advantages, and who must be provided for. Education is 
the open sesame to a happier life ; and that distinctively 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



3 1 



American institution, the free public school, is the only 
organized institution that can take the children of foreign 
lands and make patriotic American citizens of them. The 
country school must share the responsibility in this great 
test of national stability, though at present the foreign 
question princi- 
pally concerns 
the city. 

The three 
great forward 
movements in 
the evolution of 
the country 
school, the move- 
ments in the 
campaign for an 
equality of edu- 
cational privilege 
for the country 
child, are: (i) improvement of the educational plant; 
(2) enrichment of the course of study ; (3) consolidation 
of country schools. 




Fig. 21. A New Schoolhouse 



Improvement of the Educational Plant 

The little schoolhouse at the crossroads shall be as well 
fitted for the purpose intended as is the most modern city 
school building. It shall be provided with the necessary 
apparatus for doing the best work. The grounds shall be 
neat and attractive, making this place the most beautiful 
in all the countryside. Hence we need the outdoor-art 
movement for trees, flowers, vines, shrubbery, and school 



32 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



gardens ; and the indoor-art movement for tinted walls, 
harmonious colors in furnishings, choice pictures and casts, 
and neat library cases filled with good books. These are 
the country child's rights. 

Enrichment of the Course of Study 

The country child shall be put into sympathetic and 
intelligent relation to his environment. The country-school 
studies shall relate more to the life of the child, that this life 
may be rendered more significant. In an elementary way 
(quite elementary for a while) the scientific discoveries in the 
domain of the new agriculture, with reference to soil and 
plant and animal life, shall receive some attention from the 
older pupils at least. Our agricultural colleges and experi- 
ment stations are discovering valuable information for the 
farmer. These discoveries will greatly modify farm work 
and country life when the great mass of farmers appreciate 
their value; and the time for this appreciation to begin is 
when the future farmer is a child at school. This kind of 
training for real life will demand and secure better teachers. 
All these things also are the country child's rights. 



Consolidation of Country Schools 

This is a more efficient organization and administration 
of country-school interests to decrease educational waste 
and increase the power of the country child for good. This 
takes the country high school to the fields and supplies 
the connecting link between, the farm and college of agri- 
culture. The country child has a right to secondary 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COUNTRY CHILD 



33 



education without the necessity of leaving the farm home 
to get it. 1 

And so the battle is fairly on. Of the final outcome there 
is no doubt. But victory, complete victory, will not be won 
without great effort and sacrifice. The hardest of all edu- 
cational problems is to reach the average farmer and to 
enlist his active cooperation for the betterment of the 
country school. He who enters upon this work must have 
courage, patience, enthusiasm, tireless energy, and a genius 
for hard work. However, this is true of any cause that is 
really worth' while. 

1 See articles on " Rural High Schools " by Corbett, in School Review, 
Vol. VIII, Nos. 4 and 6. 



CHAPTER III 

OUTDOOR ART: BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 

In the country we do not yet appreciate fully the educa- 
tional influence of environment. We rely too much upon 
books and do not pay enough attention to things. Various 
reasons why boys leave the farm have been assigned by 




Fig. 



Noble Elms spared by the Telephone Company 



speakers at farmers' institutes. I have never heard any one 
claim that the cheerless, treeless, country school yard of 
itself had any power to charm and enthrall the average coun- 
try boy. The daily routine of hard work is much harder to 

34 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



35 



endure when there are wanting those elements of soul devel- 
opment which inspire the youth with new ideals. Hence 
he wishes to go where such things are, that his being may 
be satisfied. 

It is not strange that when a boy reaches the age of 
fourteen he refuses to associate longer with the old school- 
house with its blank 
walls and desolate 
yard. He feels the 
restraint of his envi- 
ronment. He is begin- 
ning to see life in a 
different light, and 
quits school then for 
good, or else the 
father moves to the 
city, where his chil- 
dren may have better 
opportunities both in 
school and out. The 
secret of keeping 
more boys satisfied 
with the farm rests 
primarily with the 
character of the coun- 
try schoolhouse and its surroundings. Why do not trees 
and fence posts grow in many country school yards, when 
they thrive with great vigor around the farm home a few 
rods away? Scientific agriculture tells us that soil may be 
inoculated so that alfalfa, soy beans, cow peas, etc., will 
grow and produce abundant crops. Some one will do us 
a great service if he will tell us of the particular microbe 




Fig. 23. Trees should go with the Flag 



36 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

and its method of culture that will correct the unproductive 
character of the soil in so many school yards, with especial 
reference to trees, flowers, vines, shrubbery, etc. The 
peculiar kind of bacteria needed is the one that will induce 
the average school patron or director to connect himself 
gently but firmly with a spade and do some excavating in 
the hitherto unexplored country surrounding the crossroads 
temple sacred to the " three R's." 

There is need of some kind of inoculation. The report 
of Illinois for the year ending June 30, 1904, shows 1766 
districts without trees in the school yard, 3532 districts 
with not enough trees, and 3954 with well-kept grounds; 
that is, there are 5298 country school grounds in the great 
state of Illinois that do not exercise an influence upon young 
children that will lead them to see and love the beautiful in 
country life. Indeed, the effect is quite the contrary. The 
problem for Illinois may be stated as follows : 

Given : Sunshine, rain, fertile soil, clouds, the blue heavens, trees, 
plants, and seeds. 

Given also : 5298 school grounds blessed with sunshine, rain, soil, 
and clouds, but needing trees, plants, and seeds. There are 1 50,000 
boys and girls (more or less) playing on these grounds and watched 
over by 5298 teachers and nearly 16,000 school officers. 

To prove : Our faith in the possibility of the right kind of environ- 
ment as an educational force in the lives of children. 

To show : Our faith by our works, with the cooperation of 16,000 
school officers, 5298 teachers, and 150,000 children. 

How long will the policy of neglect prevail in 5298 school 
districts ? 

Let us observe Arbor Day in every school with appropri- 
ate songs and exercises; but let us not forget to plant 
when planting needs to be done. For schools whose prem- 
ises are treeless the proper thing to do would be to dig 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



37 



rather than sing, if only one could be done in a day. What 
is the use of singing about trees and ending at that, when 
planting and caring for trees is needed ? 

No, Arbor Day has not been observed in the proper 
spirit when some afternoon a little boy recites "What Plant 
we when we Plant the Apple Tree ? " and a class of 
girls sing "The Brave Old Oak," and then all go to work 




Fig. 24. The Four Oaks 



on the arithmetic lesson, leaving the grounds as desolate 
as before. What would be the effect if one of the beauti- 
ful trees shown in this chapter could be placed in each one 
of the 5298 school grounds? Why not begin? Trees do 
have an educational as well as an ornamental value. Coun- 
try people as a rule do not realize how deeply children are 
impressed by the natural world around them. The school 



3§ 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



is or should be the center of the life of the community. 
This center of influence should be made as attractive and 
powerful as possible. A pretty and attractive schoolhouse 
and grounds are an incentive to good work. The greatest 
obstacle to be overcome is public indifference. Shall the 
improvement of the school grounds be left to a general and 
faithfully executed policy of neglect ? Is the old weather- 
beaten schoolhouse on a barren spot of ground so insignifi- 
cant that it is not worthy of attention? "It is the most 
tremendously significant thing in the whole history of the 











' „ >.■■'#■ 




■ :'-„ • ' 


' 'vflMF*™' 




-' 






:-.'/ : ". "■-.- -^ 


VjgSfo;. 


&t&gt&, *■■■ - ^H 


teg % : ;> 


i'jp Mir; . . ■ 











Fig. 25. A Real Playground 

United States. - It is the cradle of American education, 
the nursery which has always fostered, and still fosters, 
the national doctrine of equal rights for all." 

The practical question is how to overcome indifference 
and arouse a healthy public sentiment for attractive school 
grounds. This is a hard question, and its answer must 
largely be determined by local conditions. For the last six- 
years I have found the following agencies to be very helpful. 

1. Bulletins on tree planting and attractive grounds sent to all 
teachers, school officers, and hundreds of leading farmers. 

2. Illustrated printed matter sent from the office of the county 
superintendent to all the schools. This was an attempt to reach the 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



39 



parents through the children. This literature showed the condition of 
all kinds of school grounds in the county. Illustrated articles were 
also furnished the local press. A picture tells its own story. 

3. Books on trees, flowers, etc., and all that pertains to the beauti- 
ful in country life are placed in the seventy-three traveling libraries, 
so that the children and teachers in the one hundred and sixteen 
districts may form higher ideals of beauty in outdoor life. 

4. Discussion of school improvement at our teachers' meetings and 
the annual institutes. These latter are held the last week of March, 
thus enabling teachers to carry out plans while interest and enthusiasm 




Fig. 26. Standing by their Colors 

are on. The general subject of beautifying school grounds was made 
the theme of the Union Township graduation exercises held in June, 
1903. The subject for that year was "Outdoor Art for Home and 
School." Typewritten material was given the sixteen different pro- 
gramme committees — one set for each township — during the annual 
institute the last week of March. The material comprised such 
selections as the following : 

1. Song of the Brave Old Oak. 

2. Birds of Killingworth. 

3. The Country Schoolhouse 

and its Grounds. 

4. The Vine on the School- 

house. 



5- 


The Black Walnut. 


From 


6. 


The White Elm. 


Among 


7- 


The White Oak. 


Green 


8. 


The White Ash. 


Trees, 


9- 


The Shellbark 


by 




Hickory. 


Rogers. 



4 o AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

10. How do the Robins build 23. Hints on Country School 

their Nests? Grounds. 

11. Arbor Day Song (air, Battle 24. Tree Planting on Country 

Hymn of the Republic). School Grounds. 

12. Value of School Garden. 25. Arbor Day. 

13. Why improve School 26. Forest and Forestry. 

Grounds? 27. The Forest and Man. 

14. Arbor Day Anthem. 28. Landscape Gardening. 

15. Dear Dandelion. , 29. Clover (poem by James 

16. Daisy Fair (motion song). Whitcomb Riley). 

17. The Flowers Mission. 30. Improvement of School 

18. From my Armchair. Grounds. 

19. Why plant Trees? 31. The Trees. 

20. Under the Washington Elm, 32. Plant Trees and protect 

Cambridge. Birds. 

21. To a Mountain Daisy. 33. Historical Trees (told in 

22. The Little Brown Wren. rhyme). 

The educational character of the above material can best 
be judged by quoting entire one of the above selections. 
Here follows selection 30: 

The editor of a well-known magazine recently asked five hundred 
business men all over the country whether, in their opinion, there is 
any financial value in attractive surroundings to a business plant. 
Ninety-five per cent of those replying declare that the product of a 
business concern or factory is much more valuable when the factory 
or office is clean, attractive, and beautiful, and when the employees 
can come in daily contact with orderly surroundings and see floral 
beauties on the grounds. Furthermore, they declare that such welL- 
ordered business concerns are a decided commercial benefit to the 
community. 

A question of equal significance might be asked of educators, 
preachers, and parents, — whether, in their opinion, there is any moral, 
intellectual, and spiritual value in attractive school surroundings ; 
whether the children are happier and their work more efficient by 
daily contact with beautiful school grounds; whether the cultivated 
taste and appreciation of the beautiful would not find expression in 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



41 



the improvement of the home conditions, thus making the school a 
radiating center for civic improvement. 

The great interest in public beauty which is manifested all over 
the country is largely due to the efforts of the American Park and 
Outdoor Art Association and the American League for Civic Improve- 
ment. They have done much public service by a process of organiza- 
tion and education, and there is no better place to begin than in the 
public schools. The most efficient way of reaching the parents is 
through the children. 

The greatest need and greatest opportunity is in rural districts ; 
and, alas ! too often there is only bleakness and barrenness. The 
school directors 
seem to have set 
apart the poorest 
ground in the dis- 
trict for the school 
yard. Will nothing 
grow ? There are 
no flowers, and only 
some weak grass 
and a few starved 
trees. By a little 
effort the unattract- 
ive surroundings 
could be made 
pleasant and beau- 
tiful. Children 
should be led to 
study Nature's method, and to examine her manner of planting flowers 
beside the road, grouping trees and shrubs along the fences, in the 
woods, and upon the banks of streams. The wind, the birds, and the 
squirrels — Nature's agents — have no regularity in their seed planting. 
The arrangement is an irregular massing of her trees, shrubs, and 
flowers, and their struggle for existence produces pleasing variety 
and effective results all the year round. 

For inspiration in my efforts to create a new ideal with 
reference to the beautiful in country life I am indebted to 




?<# 



Fig. 27. A Shrubbery Detail 



42 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



various agencies given below, though not necessarily given 
in order of importance. 

i. Bulletins issued by the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, especially the ones issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry and 
the Bureau of Forestry. 

2. Publications of the American Park and Outdoor Art Association. 




Fig. 28. The Treeless School Grounds 

3. Literature and pictures given by the Youth's Companion Pub- 
lishing Company. 

4. Various magazines like Country Life in America. 

5. Arbor and Bird Day manuals issued for the past six years by 
the state superintendents of Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, 
and Illinois. Those of Wisconsin have been especially helpful. 

6. Books like Babcock's Bird Day; Ely's A Woman's Hardy 
Garden; Miller's Children's Gardens; Blanchan's Nature's Garden ; 
Dugmore's Nature and the Camera; Hemenway's How to make a 
School Gardefi; Roth's First Book of Forestry; Roberts's The 
Heart of the Ancient Wood; Rogers's A?no?ig Green Trees; Miller's 
The B?-ook Book; Gibson's Eye Spy; Burroughs's Pepactonj and 
many others. 

7. A closer study of road, stream, and field in my own county of 
Winnebago. There is much of beauty in each school district which 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



43 



the children do not yet see. If they do see it, they are like the lad 
who said to me a few days ago (when we were discussing Bryant's 
" What Plant we when we Plant the Apple Tree?"), in answer to 
the question about the beauty of common things, " We may see the 




Fig. 29. Why not on the School Ground? 

beauty, but we don't think of it." This was from a boy ten years old. 
I feel sure that teachers can get an inspiration from some one or 
more of the above sources, which will lead them to see and think move 
of the beauty of common things. 

It does not cost much to plant trees. The small item of 
expense may not be the reason why more planting is not 
done. Perhaps teachers, children, and school officers do 
not know what to plant, or how to plant, or why to plant. 

The following bulletins cost nothing and should be in 
every country school and should be studied by teachers 



44 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

and pupils. In addition to this, copies should be mailed 
to the school officers of every district still without trees. 
The bulletins are issued by the Bureau of Forestry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Send 
postal card for them. 

i. Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds (Farmers' Bulletin 
No. 134). 

2. A Primer of Forestry (Farmers' Bulletin No. 173). 

3. What Forestry Means to Representative Men (Circular No. 33). 

Bulletin No. 1 34 was sent to two hundred teachers, three 
hundred and fifty school officers, and several hundred repre- 
sentative farmers in our county. I wanted them to know 
that trees will grow in the soil surrounding the average 
schoolhouse. This is a very useful pamphlet and its value 
in stimulating interest in trees cannot be overestimated, 
provided, of course, that it is read and that proper action 
results from the reading. The table of contents is as follows : 

Reasons for School-Ground Planting. 

Arbor Day and School-Ground Planting. 

Preliminary Arrangements for Planting. 

What Planting to Do. 

Kinds of Trees to Plant. 

Obtaining the Trees. 

How to plant the Trees. 

Why Trees die in Transplanting. 

Care of Trees after Planting. 

Studies for the Teacher and School. 

Facts about Trees. 

Can any outline be more practical and to the point for 
the country school-teacher anxious to do something to 
beautify the grounds? The fact is that we have so long 



t> 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



45 



regarded books as the sole agent in the education of the 
country child, that as teachers we have become slaves of 
the text and feel lost when we try to teach something or do 
something for which we can find no rule in the text-book of 
sacred reliance. Can anything of educational value come 
from digging in the dirt and planting trees ? Listen to what 
the author of this 
bulletin -has to say 
about the educa- 
tional value of trees : 

It is money well spent 
to make the schoolhouse 
and everything about it 
attractive and beautiful. 
Here is one of the cen- 
ters of the life of the 
community, the one in 
which is gathered its 
most impressionable ele- 
ment. The school is sup- 
ported at public expense 
in order to make good 
American citizens. It 
aims at securing the highest possible development of mind and char- 
acter. Every element of order, neatness, and beauty, every broadening 
influence, every appeal to the finer nature of the child, means better 
men and women and a more thrifty, prosperous, and attractive com- 
munity. Americans are justly proud of their school system, and 
should be willing to support the schools not only with money but 
with time and labor. 

Under " Studies for the Teacher and School" are given 
such important topics as Characteristics of Trees, Influence 
of Soil upon Trees, Composition of Soils, Influence of Trees 
upon Soil, Influence of Trees upon One Another, and Books 




Fig. 30. Treatment of Outbuildings 



4 6 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



and Trees. The bulletin is well illustrated. But perhaps 
enough has been said to interest many teachers to secure 
a copy, and at the same time to have copies sent to school 
directors and prominent patrons of the Jistrict. 

The country children in planting and caring for trees 
become a part of the great forestry movement that is sweep- 
ing over the country. 
The older children of 
the school will appreci- 
ate Circular No. 33, — 
" What Forestry means 
to Representative 
Men." Says President 
Roosevelt : 

I ask with all the inten- 
sity that I am capable of, that 
the men of the West will 
remember the sharp distinc- 
tion I have just drawn be- 
tween the man who skins 
the land and the man who 
develops the country. I am 
going to work with, and only 
with, the man who develops 
the country. I am against 
the land skinner every time. 
Our policy is consistent, to 
give to every portion of the 
public domain its highest possible amount of use, and of course that can 
be given only through the hearty cooperation of the Western people. 

President Roosevelt would have scant sympathy with 
the people who would allow the country school grounds to 
remain "skinned " of trees, and would not "develop" the 
possibilities that even a school yard holds. 




BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



47 



The Youth's Companion, Boston, Massachusetts, publishes 
two excellent illustrated pamphlets which every country 
teacher and school officer should read. One is " How to 
set out Trees and Shrubbery," by Professor L. H. Bailey, 
Dean of the College of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York; the 
other is " Suggestions for beautifying Home, Village, and 
Roadway," by Warren H. Manning, Secretary of the Amer- 
ican Park and Outdoor Art Association. To see and read 
these publications will surely give higher ideals of beauty. 




Fig. 32. Improving Grounds of Consolidated School 

I refer to this literature because so often teachers and chil- 
dren would do things if they only knew what is best to be 
done and the best way of doing it. Since as teachers we 
are so fond of confining our education to the printed page, 
why not know something about trees and flowers as well as 
about the elements of a complex sentence or how to extract 
the cube root to three decimal places ? The following is the 
opening paragraph of the pamphlet by Dean Bailey: 

One's training for the work of life is begun in the home and fostered 
in the school. This training is the result of a direct and conscious 



48 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

effort on the part of the parent and teacher, combined with the indirect 
result of the surroundings in which the child is placed. The surround- 
ings are more potent than we think, and they are usually neglected. It 
is probable that the antipathy to farm life is often formed before the 
child is able to reason on the subject. An attractive playground will 
do more than a profitable wheat crop to keep the child on the farm. 

Dean Bailey, in his book, The Nature Study Idea, says 
the following with reference to the first thing to be done : 

The first thing to do is to arouse the public conscience. Begin with 
the children. As soon as they are directed to see the conditions they 
will believe what they see. They are not prejudiced. They will talk 
about it; teacher, mother, father will hear. 

I give these quotations because the value of the beautiful 
in the country cannot be emphasized too strongly if we hope 
to spiritualize country life. 

The grounds of the first consolidated country school in 
Illinois in Seward Township, Winnebago County (see an- 
other chapter), are 3.6 acres in extent and cost the con- 
solidated district a thousand dollars. It was part of a 
cornfield ; hence not a tree or shrub was growing when 
the school opened, February 1, 1904. By permission of the 
school directors, I asked Professor J. C. Blair, Chief of Horti- 
culture, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, to 
prepare a design for the improvement of the grounds, with 
suggested planting, which would serve as an ideal for the 
people. He did so, and Arbor Day was then observed in 
earnest, April, 1904. A good beginning has been made, 
although much remains to be done. But here is an oppor- 
tunity for growth. If the people in this consolidated dis- 
trict are true to the new ideal, what a contrast this school 
ground will be to those surrounding the old houses ! 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



49 



The diagram is given, with the details of planting. The 
varieties of trees, shrubs, etc., are given. It is quite possible 
that some one is asking for the specific names of things 
to plant. Observe that what will grow in the latitude of 
Illinois will grow in Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, 
Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, 
New Jersey, and the 
New England states. 
This is according to 
a district map of the 
United States shown 
on page 39 of the 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 
218, — "The School 
Garden," — prepared 
by L. C. Corbett, 
Horticulturist, Bu- 
reau of Plant Indus- 
try, United States 
Department of Agri- 
culture, Washington, 
D.C. 

In the following 
enumeration of the 
Seward planting, prepared by Professor Blair, the scientific 
names are omitted where the common name is given. The 
numbers here given refer to numbers in the diagram (Fig. 35): 




Fig. 33. Vines on the Schoolhouse 



1. Schoolhouse. 

2. Front walk, 5 ft. wide. 

3. Walks to well, 3 ft. wide. 

4. Girls' closet. 

4#. Walks to girls' closet, 3 ft. wide. 



5o 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



5. Walk to rear door. 

6. Boys' closet. 

6a. Walk to boys' closet, 3 ft. wide. 

7. Drive to rear door, 6 ft. wide, of cinders or gravel. 

8. Drive to horse shed,' 6 ft. wide, of cinders or gravel. 
Shed for horses, 20 ft. by 100 ft. 
Shed for manure, 5 ft. by 20 ft. 
Tennis court, 27 ft. by 78 ft. 

12. Tennis court, 27 ft. by 78 ft. 



9- 
10. 
11. 



sf i 




IIM Mill Hi 


m iJL. ^^Ka 


*^-Jr 


■sEPfl 



Fig. 34. At the Wei 



13. School garden or experimental plots, each 20 ft. by 30 ft. 

14. Well. 

15-46. American Elm (White Elm or Water Elm). 

47. Althea (Rose of Sharon) (red, white, blue). 

48. Hibiscus Syriacus. 

49. Colorado Blue Spruce. 

50. Sugar Maple (Hard Maple or Rock Maple). 

51. (a) Red Siberian Dogwood. (b) Golden-barked Cornel. 

(c) European Red Osier Dogwood. 

52. Sweet Shrub (Spicebush). 

53. (a) Garland Syringa. (b) Large-flowering Syringa. (<:) Phila- 

delphus billardii. (d) Golden Mock Orange. 




Fig. 35. A Design for the Improvement 
Prepared by G. A. Crosthwait, under the direction 




Planting of the Seward School Grounds 

. Blair, Chief of Horticulture, University of Illinois 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 51 

54. (a) Japan Snowball, (b) Weigelia Candida, (c) Wayfaring- 

tree, (d) Common Lilac, (e) Cranberry-tree. {/) Syringa 
Vulgaris alba. 

55. Hardy Catalpa (Western Catalpa). 

56. European Barberry. 

57. (a) Common Elder, (b) Golden Elder, (c) Cut-leaved Elder. 

(d) Flowering Currant (Crimson-flowered Currant). (<?) Rhus 
glabra, Rhus copallina, Rhus typhina. 

58. American Arborvitse (a hedge). 

59. Basswood (Linden, Linn, Lime Tree, etc.). 

60. European Larch. 
6r. Lombardy Poplar. 

62. White-flowering Dogwood. 

63. Red-flowering Dogwood. 

64. Red Juniper (Red Cedar). 

65. Nordmann's Silver Fir. 

66. Red Juniper (Red Cedar). 
67.. Pyramidal Arborvitse. 

68. Pyramidal Arborvitse. 

69. American Arborvitse. 

70. Siberian Arborvitse. 

71. European Burning-bush (Strawberry-tree). 

72. Forsythia Fortunei. 

73. Dwarf Pink-flowering Almond. 

74. (a) Cranberry-tree. ( b) Japan Quince. 

75. Hazelnut. 

76. Kentucky Coffee-tree. 

yy. (a) Red Osier. (b) Cornus paniculata. (c) European Red 
Osier Dogwood. 

78. (a) Mountain Sumac, (b) Rhus glabra, (c) Rhus typhina. 

79. Norway Maple. 

80. Flowering Raspberry. 

81. (a) Van Houtte's Spirea. (b) Thunberg's Spirea. (c) Golden 

Spirea. 

82. Tree Peony. 

83. Tulip-tree. 

84. Fortune's Pink Spirea. 

85. Spirea Bwnaldi. 



52 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

86. (a) White Alder (Pepper-bush). (&) European Burning-bush. 

(c) Spicebush (Sweet Shrub). 

87. (a) Dwarf Deutzia. (b) Common Mezereon. (c) English Fly- 

Honeysuckle. 

88. Hardy Ferns. 

89. (a) Deutzia Crenata candidissima. (fi), (c), (d) Dwarf 

Deutzia. 

90. Hardy Roses of different varieties. 

91. Bassvvood (see 59). 




Fig. 36. A Row of Hard Maples 

92. (a) Common Lilac. (/?) Red Osier, (c) Purple Barberry. 

(d) Japan Snowball, (e) Purple-leaved Plum. (/) White 
Lilac. 

93. Tartarian Honeysuckle. 

94. Hardy Ferns. 

95. Forsythia Forttmei. 

96. Loiiicei'a Fragrantissima. 

97. Tartarian Honeysuckle. 

98. White Tartarian Honeysuckle. 

99. Indian Currant (Coral-berry). 
100. Joan of Arc. 



BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



53 



io I. Snowberry. 

102. St. John's-wort. 

103. Forsythia viridissima. 
104-110. Japanese Ivy (Boston Ivy). 

in, 112. Hibiscus Syriaais (several varieties). 

113. Great-panicled Hydrangea. 

1 14. Flowering Currant. 

115. Hardy Roses. 

116. Oriental Plane-tree. 

1 17. Syringa vulgaris (Charles X). 

118. Maidenhair-tree (Gingks-tree). 

1 19. Hackberry (Nettle-tree). 

120. Japanese Sweetbrier. 

121. (a) White Lilac. (J?) Common Lilac. (<f) De Markley's Red 

Lilac. 

122. Scarlet Oak. 

123. American Redbud (Judas-tree). 

124. Pin-oak. 

125. White Walnut (Butternut). 

126. Silky Cornel. 

127. Black Walnut. 

128. Hazelnut. 

129. Wild Cherry (Black Cherry). 

130. (a) Forsythia Fortunei. (b) Japan Quince, (c) Pearl-bush. 

131. Silver-bell. 

132. White Pine (Weymouth Pine). 

133. Hemlock (Hemlock Spruce). 

134. Japanese Holly. 

135. European White Birch. 

136. Norway Spruce. 

137. Black Pine (Austrian Pine). 

138. Japan Corchorus. 

139. Thornless Honey Locust. 

In the accompanying plan (Fig. 35) no plants have been suggested 
besides trees and hardy shrubs. The idea is that in this way the most 
enduring and dignified planting can be produced. However, there are 
two great classes of plants which are of importance, especially in the 



54 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



earlier years of growth of our statelier plants. These are our herba- 
ceous perennials and annuals. 

Herbaceous perennials are easy to grow, and many may be planted 
in almost any place. They may be planted in the open or among 
or under trees and shrubs., In a naturalistic planting, however, they 
should not be planted in formal beds. They should be scattered 
about in a seemingly careless manner, and they should be found in 
the bays of shrubbery and in any nook that seems to need filling. 

For quick effects 
the annuals come 
into play. What 
has been said of the 
perennials is true of 
the annuals as well. 
Whatever else is 
done in this plant- 
ing, do not disfig- 
ure the landscape 
by digging up great 
spaces for formal 
flower beds. Let 
teachers and pupils 
have the privilege 
of noticing where 

the various peren- 

Fig. T]. The Results of Tree -Planting • i j i 

J/ • fo nials and annuals 

do well, and deciding among themselves where they are most at home. 

Our retiring flowers of the woodland would seem entirely out of place 

in a bed out in the lawn. A few perennials and annuals which may 

well find a home in some part of our planting are mentioned below : 

Perennials. Anemone (or wind flower), columbine, asters, bluebell 
(or harebell), chrysanthemum, coreopsis, larkspur, foxglove, sunflower 
(especially the double variety), hollyhock, poppy, peony, phlox, golden- 
rod, trillium, bleeding-heart, iris, ornamental grasses, violets, spring- 
beauty, dogtooth violet, etc. 

Annuals. China aster, alyssum, snapdragon, balsam, bachelor's 
button, coxcomb, pink, nasturtium, pansy, petunia, phlox, poppy, 
castor-oil bean, sunflower, verbena, zinnia, etc. 




BEAUTIFYING SCHOOL GROUNDS 



55 



Bulbous plants. Crocus, dahlia, gladiolus, lily, narcissus, tuberose, 
tulip, etc. 

Climbers. It is recommended that the outbuildings, horse shed, 
closets, etc., be covered as soon as possible with rapidly growing 
vines. If a latticework of some kind is built around the closets, they 
will soon be hidden. The slower growing shrubs will come on in due 
time. The American ivy, Dutchman's-pipe, bittersweet, virgin's- 
bower, trumpet-creeper, and wistaria are all hardy perennials. For 
the first year the climbing cucumber, hop-vine, or morning-glory may 
be used. There are many others from which to choose. 

J. C. Blair 
Urbana, Illinois 



Surely the excuse that we do not know what to plant 
is no longer a valid one. Our country schools should be 
centers of influence in the movement to make the country 
truly a country beautiful. There is great hope with the 




Fig. 38. Where the Wild Crab Apple, Plum, etc., are Saved 



rising generation. When the children of to-day become the 
men and women of a great to-morrow, if their education 
has done for them what it should do, they will "believe 
in beauty in the schoolroom, in the home, in daily life, and 
out of doors." 



CHAPTER IV 
SCHOOL GARDENS 

The school garden in the country school is as yet an 
experiment. While this is true, it is nevertheless a move- 
ment which promises much, if properly directed, in the 
new education for the country child. Something more than 
talk is needed if our school grounds are to be made beau- 
tiful and if our children are to have elementary instruction 
in agriculture. Unless something is done, the grounds will 
continue to be desolate. The study of agriculture in the 
country school must lead the children to investigate for 
themselves with reference to soil and plant life. Hence the 
beginnings of the school-garden movement in the country 
school, though crude and unscientific to the expert, are to be 
commended, for they are a long advance over the do-noth- 
ing policy which has prevailed long enough. Let us have 
the courage to be pioneers in a movement that is right in 
itself, though we may not be able to see very far ahead. 
Manual training was held up to derision and laughed to 
scorn by those who were supposed, by themselves at least, 
to know all worth knowing in the theory and practice of 
education. Manual training flourished, however, and the 
school garden has at least a fighting chance. 

We are slowly changing our opinions with reference to 
many things in the training of the child. To-day we are 
inclined to believe with John Dewey that education is not 
merely a preparation for life, but that it is, or should be, 

56 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



57 



life. Professor Harms of Harvard University, in his new 
book, A Modern School, speaks as follows with reference 
to the kind of education demanded by democratic society. 
He says : 

Now the only real preparation for life's duties, opportunities, and 
privileges is participation in them so far as they can be rendered in- 
telligible, interesting, and accessible to children and youth of school 
age ; and hence the first duty of all education is to provide participation 
as fully and as freely as possible. From the beginning such an educa- 
tion cannot be limited to the school arts, — reading, writing, ciphering. 




Fig. 39. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1903) 



It must acquaint the pupil with the material and social environment 
in order that every avenue of knowledge may be opened to him, and 
every incipient power receive appropriate cultivation. Any other 
course is a postponement of education, not education. Such a post- 
ponement is a permanent loss to the individual and to society. It is 
a perversion of opportunity, and an economic waste. 

And so the education of the country child for life's work 
''cannot be limited to the school arts," — the " three 
R's " of blessed memory ! What is the " material and social 
environment " of the country child, — this educative mate- 
rial which is to assist in cultivating his " every incipient 



58 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

power" ? It seems that " appropriate cultivation" is not to 
come alone from reading some text-book on soil and the 
planting of seeds, but that there shall be "participation" 
in educational processes, so far as these processes can be 
" rendered intelligible, interesting, and accessible to chil- 
dren and youth of school age." Well, the school garden 
surely can be made accessible to most of the country chil- 
dren ; and the boys and girls will gladly " participate " in 
soil experiments and plant growing, if a real live teacher 
will make the participation " intelligible and interesting." 
So, fellow-teacher in some remote district school, if you 
are teaching your children to do things as well as to study 
about things, be of good cheer, for you are in accord with 
educational thought and progress. Harvard University is 
pointing the way. 

It would seem that the school garden in cities should, of 
course, be a very rational means of supplementing the study 
of books, to say nothing of its aesthetic value in beautifying 
grounds. Also many of the conditions there make it much 
easier to have successful school gardens. The school year 
is longer, and there are trained teachers with better sala- 
ries, teachers who have a high appreciation of beauty and 
the value of nature study from nature. This sympathetic 
attitude is the result of their Normal training:, where, in a 
course covering two or three years, they are told how, in 
the most effective manner and with a minimum of " eco- 
nomic waste," they are to cultivate the child's "every in- 
cipient power." The city child does not come in contact 
with nature as does the country child ; hence it is much 
easier to interest him. Also there is a much more enlight- 
ened public sentiment in the cities, with their public libra- 
ries and art galleries. Public-spirited men and women give 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



59 



time and money to encourage the return to nature. Per- 
haps there is a greater need of this in the artificial life of 
cities. The school garden is not likely to suffer during dry 
summer vacations, for there are the janitor and the hydrant. 
And it is not surprising that such cities as Boston, Yonkers, 
Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and others should achieve 
such great results when there are salaried expert super- 
visors, who direct the work even in vacation time. And 




Fig. 40. A School Garden in Winnebago County. (1903) 



this work is of the highest educative value. Instead of 
cities building larger jails and pointing with pride to such 
structures as the solution of the bad-boy problem, let more 
money be spent in farm schools, where the boy can get 
away from the slum back to the brown earth. Garden work 
is better than "bumminV' 

I have before me a late bulletin on the Philadelphia 
school gardens. This is adjoint report of the Civic Club, 
the Civic Betterment Association, the Public Education 
Association, and the City Parks Association. With a single 



60 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

quotation from this valuable pamphlet I will drop all 
consideration of the city-school garden and devote the 
remainder of this chapter to the garden in the country 
school. With reference to results the report says : 

They [the gardens] have taken the children of their neighborhoods 
off the street, even the big boys, at that formative period between 
twelve and sixteen, when so many begin to go to the bad. Unless 
there are public playgrounds and gardens, they have little else to do. 
The gardens have given the children something to think about and 
work over, and the product of that thought and work has been gath- 
ered by each child for his own. The experience has taught them 
that work is worth something ; that results come from it ; that what 
is taught in school is not something intangible, " highfalutin," im- 
posed by some superior, earnestly soulful person, who was never 
young, but instead is directly useful in everyday ways. Nature study 
is changed from dry investigation of the causes of plant growth into 
a lively, careful and scientific observation of the steps by which a 
harvest is gradually prepared. 

It was a happy thought to bring the plots together in big gardens. 
Some dry-as-dust pedagogue might have reasoned from Jevons's logic 
that a garden plot is a garden plot, even if not alongside of others, 
and so have tried to induce each child to have his or her little plot at 
home, — logic, but not human nature. Competition, good-fellowship, 
the desire for companionship, all contribute to the success of the 
school garden. The children are drawn by other children. They are 
learning when they don't know it. The open air and sunshine are 
enabling them to learn, to comprehend, more. It is a positively good 
thing for their health to get their hands in good rich earth, — that old 
mother earth from which we have all come. " Hands in the earth " 
is now prescribed by doctors as a cure for lack of vitality, just as 
fresh air and sunshine a-plenty is prescribed for consumption, and the 
school garden compels all three. 

To contemplate the difficulties in country-school garden- 
ing is to do nothing. I am aware that the average country 
school-teacher is not as well trained as she should be, 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



6l 



and she is generally underpaid. The school year is short. 
The average for the country child in Illinois for 1904 
was ninety-four days as against one hundred and fifty- 
nine days for the average city child. This is not what you 
might call an educational " square deal." Then, too, the 
neglect during vacation and the indifference or hostility 
of patrons make the problem of country-school gardening 
quite different from that in the cities. But a meek, sub- 
missive attitude towards obstacles that may lie in the way 









wS- — 


i 


Bfei * 


J i 1 


F^Sf ^ 


r^^v^ 


'■: . . .■ .'.•:.'. "'•'"' ■'.." - ; 


"''-'- *'"\ ' 


* ^i 




- 



Fig. 41. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1903) 

of "participation" in vital educational processes in doing 
things, accompanied with increased devotion to "'rith- 
metic and spellin'," is not putting the country child into 
sympathetic and intelligent relation to his " material and 
social environment." We must be able to figure and spell, 
of course ; but may we not be optimistic enough to hope 
that when we have passed through the crude experimental 
stage of country-school gardening there may result some 
material that will afford quite as much value and discipline 



62 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

for the country child as that now acquired from his joyous 
participation in alligation, foreign exchange, and marine in- 
surance ? But as a last argument it is said that country 
children have enough garden work at home. Yes, such as 
it is. But my observation leads me to the conclusion that 
there is vast room for improvement in the home garden of 
the average American farmer ; and the right kind of train- 
ing in the experimental garden at school will make the 
child a more efficient factor in the garden work at home. 
This has a dollar value, if you must look at education from 
the dollar point of view. But it has a culture value as well. 
One purpose of the school garden in the country school 
should be to help in beautifying the grounds. Flowers 
should abound, for they are educators and make us sen- 
sitive to all that is lovely, whether in the field, along the 
roadside, or in the deep woods. To beautify the school 
grounds with the flower garden does not mean that all the 
wild vines, wild shrubs, or wild flowers are to be eliminated 
and a straight row of geraniums planted across the front of 
the yard, or a bed of nasturtiums made in the middle of the 
open space of the school grounds. Save all that is of a wild 
nature. Study how nature plants and imitate her example. 
Leave the open spaces for the playground and plant along 
the fences, walks, or at the base of the school building. I 
visited one of my schools recently where the directors are 
allowing the wild grapevines, wild blackberry and raspberry, 
wild flowers, etc., to flourish. Thus a bit of wild wood- 
land is available for observation work. Here birds may 
nest and sing their songs, and the modest wild flower find 
a refuge and protection. Here children may learn lessons 
about animal and plant life in a very practical way. I vis- 
ited another school which had some grand forest trees in 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



63 



the back part of the yard, with clumps of hazel bush inter- 
spersed among them. The hazel had all been cut down and 
put in neat piles ready for the torch. The trees were still 
standing. If fuel becomes scarce, it will be the proper 
thing, I suppose, to cut them down for firewood and save 
a few dollars in taxes for a year or two. 

There is plenty of good literature available for the ask- 
ing, which will tell school officers and teachers what to 
plant and how to plant. " How to set out Trees and 




Fig. 42. A School Garden at Home (1904) 



Shrubbery" (already mentioned, page 47), by Dean L. H. 
Bailey, is a valuable pamphlet published by the Youth's 
Companion. There are numerous diagrams in it which are 
very suggestive. I give one quotation only to interest the 
reader and cause him to read the entire pamphlet : 

Next comes the planting. Let it be irregular and natural, and repre- 
sent it by a wavy line. First of all, cover up the outhouses. Then 
plant heavily on the side, or in the direction of the prevailing wind. 
Leave openings in your plan wherever there are views to be had of 
fine old trees, attractive farmhouses, a brook, or a beautiful hill 
or field. Throw a handful of shrubs into the corners, by the steps, 
and about the bare corners of the buildinsf. 



64 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Besides the plan for improvement of the Seward school 
ground (see Chapter III), with suggested list of trees, 
shrubs, and flowers, as prepared by Professor Blair, the 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 218 gives some most helpful sug- 
gestions. This bulletin, " The School Garden," is prepared 
by Professor L. C. Corbett, Horticulturist, Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Washington, D.C. A postal card will get it. 
Eight pages of this bulletin are given up to the subject 
of the decoration of school grounds. Illustrations abound 
of plans for planting, and of walks, lawns, and annual 
plants, trees, and shrubs suitable for school grounds, with 
cultural directions. This bulletin should be in the hands 
of every country teacher and school director in our land. 
At least, our teachers should not plead ignorance of the 
most valuable and helpful literature along this line. Farm- 
ers' Bulletin No. 185, "Beautifying Home Grounds," is also 
by Professor Corbett. It is valuable, and it seems to me 
that the country school-teacher who is not inspired by these 
two bulletins and does not do some one thing to better con- 
ditions in the average farm home and country school has 
missed her calling. She (or he) is hired to teach geography 
and arithmetic to boys and girls, but Professor Corbett says 
in "The School Garden" (Farmers' Bulletin No. 218): 

The plans of the grounds will serve as an exercise both in geog- 
raphy and in arithmetic, and if the pupils are encouraged to make 
such designs, their interest in the work will be assured, and a prac- 
tical application of the principles taught in the schoolroom will be a 
result of no little value. 

Is it possible that there is educative material in the en- 
vironment of the country child that is not found in a text- 
book ? Note that Professor Corbett says, " if the pupils 
are encouraged." Who is to be the One Courageous, the 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



65 



Leader Inspirational, in this great new true educational 
uplift for the country school ? 

The second purpose of a garden in the country school is 
to utilize it for specific instruction in plant growth and soil 
treatment. If the elementary instruction in agriculture in 
the country school is to be of any value, the children must 
do some practical work instead of memorizing a few pages 
of some text- 
book, no matter 
how fascinat- 
ingly it may be 
written. A 
school garden, if 
only a bed four 
feet by six feet, 
under the direc- 
tion of an ear- 
nest, enthusiastic 
teacher, will 
afford an excel- 
lent field for 
training children in experimental and observation work. 
A farmer of the future in Illinois, who expects to make 
five per cent clear profit on an investment in land costing 
one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, will have to 
do some thinking ; and the place for the thinking to begin 
is in the district school. Our higher institutions of agri- 
cultural instruction are discovering much that will be of 
great value to the future farmer. The problem is how to 
make this expert knowledge available for the country child. 
The school experimental garden, promises much, if teachers 
and school officers will cooperate with the children. 




Fig. 43. A School Garden at the Seward 
Consolidated School (1904) 



66 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Notice that I said an "earnest" and " enthusiastic " 
teacher. Of course it would be better if she were " well- 
trained" also. A boy, if "earnest" and " enthusiastic," will 
learn to swim if you will only let him get into the water. 
If we wait till the boys receive scientific directions at some 
swimming school before they go near the river, not many 
of them will ever learn to swim. This accomplishment, 
however, may not be essential to the man's success in life. 
There does come a time when most of us must either sink 
or swim, regardless of rules or formulas. My point is that, 
if we wait till all the country school-teachers know all about 
plant growth or soil before they attempt a garden, the prob- 
abilities are that the harvest will be over and the summer 
ended before they get ready to dig and plant. This is what 
I would say to teachers : The thing now to do is to dig and 
plant and to learn by doing these very things with the 
children. This will reveal to you your limitations, and if 
you have the spirit of the true teacher and mean business, 
you will find a way to attend a summer session for country 
teachers such as the University of Illinois conducted for 
the first time in June, 1905. To be sure, it is easier to 
sit in the schoolroom and hear the children call over the 
words in McGuffey's reader, the one you used when you 
were a pupil a few short years ago. But are you seeking 
the easiest or the best thing to do ? 

The movement to instruct our children in the simplest 
facts with reference to the science of agriculture will be 
a failure if confined to a printed page. A school garden 
affords opportunity for watching the growth of plant life, 
and at the same time teaches one how to treat the soil so 
as to retain moisture in case of drought, how to remove 
injurious insects from plants, how to know the proper time 



SCHOOL GARDENS 67 

to harvest, and many other things pertaining to agriculture. 
Good reference books and bulletins of the state experiment 
station should be found in every country-school library. 
There is no excuse for not having the bulletins, since they 
may be had for the asking. But these are not the only 
things needed, nor indeed are they of first importance. 
The first and most important thing, it seems to me, is for 
each child to plant a seed of some kind and begin to care 
for a plant. To do this is to come in contact with nature 
in a practical and sympathetic way that cannot be attained 
through books. The Honorable James Wilson, United States 
Secretary of Agriculture, says : 

The young farmer attending the district school could readily be 
taught what a plant gets from the soil and what it gets from the air. 
The several grasses could be planted, and their office in filling the 
soil with humus, enabling the soil to retain moisture, could be ex- 
plained. The legumes — peas, beans, clover, and alfalfa — could be 
grown in the schoolhouse yard, and during recess or at the noon hour 
the teacher could interest the students by digging up a young pea or 
clover root and showing the nodules, whose office it is to bring free 
nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it in the soil. 

The best way to have a school garden is to have it. To 
be sure, there is inertia to overcome and prejudice. We 
get so in the habit of doing nothing, and our success in 
this direction is so phenomenal, that it requires some energy 
to make a new departure. We are afraid that people will 
say: "The school garden ! — another fad. It \s all froth and 
contrary to the sacred course of study." But if we wait 
till every one agrees with us, no progress will ever be made. 
The guiding principle should be, " Is the thing right and 
expedient ? " If so, make an effort to do it, and in such a 
way as to show results, no matter what may be the diffi- 
culties to be overcome. 



68 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



There are to-day a hundred thousand school gardens 
in Europe, and the progress of the recent movement in 
America is encouraging, as many of the leaders in educa- 
tional matters show a disposition to look upon this study 
as the basis and beginning of all nature work. This is the 
case in other countries, among them Russia, where no 
school can receive state funds unless it has a garden con- 
nected with it. The idea is a sound and healthy one, since 
sixty-five per cent of our exports are farm products ; yet 




Fig. 44. A Desolate Schoolhouse 

thousands of children grow up without knowing anything 
at all of agriculture. 

School gardens began with us in 1903. At my request 
a plan or model garden was prepared by Professor J. C. 
Blair, Horticulturist of the Illinois College of Agriculture. 
I think it a good thing to put our country teachers in touch 
with the state College of Agriculture and to get the chil- 
dren, and through them the parents, to begin to read and 
think about the most important, perhaps, of our state insti- 
tutions, namely the College of Agriculture and the work 
of the experiment station. So we call on the various de- 
partments for help, and are making an effort to have all the 
principal bulletins form a part of the country-school library. 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



69 



The model designed by Professor Blair called for a gar- 
den twelve feet by thirty-six feet. I believe this is too 
large to begin with, especially if the school has but eight 
or twelve pupils. The size is left to the judgment of the 
teacher. For three years now between seventy and eighty 
districts in Winnebago County have been doing garden 
work to a greater or less extent, as the illustrations in this 
chapter will show. We do not claim for these plots of 
ground results equal to those attained in the great city 





.' ■■ 


■:J*^h 


,J.;*!,, 


.... 



Fig. 45. A Farm Home near the Desolate Schoolhouse 

garden, with its expert supervision and trained teachers ; 
but we claim that the spirit of the movement is all right, 
and what has been already accomplished affords no cause 
for discouragement or regret for the undertaking. It takes 
time to create sentiment for what is really worth while ; 
and to make the school garden a permanent educational 
factor, the experiments must continue until the present 
school children become the teachers and school officers of 
the great to-morrow. 

The plan prepared by Professor Blair was made the sub- 
ject of a week's study at the annual teachers' institute, 
which is always held in March. Thus the teachers can at 



7o 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



once put into practice what they have learned without wait- 
ing for six months to elapse before seeding time comes. 
The teachers and children have had to contend with dry 
weather, with the untamed character of the soil, and with 
the timidity that naturally goes with original experimental 
work not laid down in the school text-book of sacred 




Fig. 46. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 

reliance. But, as said above, to contemplate the difficulties 
of school gardening is to do nothing. 

Stereopticon lectures have been given at our teachers' in- 
stitutes on the subject of school gardens, and the teachers 
thus catch the spirit of what progress is being made all 
over the country. 

The agricultural editor of the Bloomington (Illinois) 
Pantagraph inspected some of our first attempts at gar- 
dening in 1903, and reported as follows in the columns of 
that paper : 

The real measure of the work is not in pecks of potatoes and num- 
ber of blossoms, — not in the commercial value of the products, but 



SCHOOL GARDENS 7 I 

in its educative value to the child. A real beginning has been made, 
a general beginning, a uniform beginning, and this counts for a great 
deal. The thought and the work have been started in the right direc- 
tion. It will be comparatively easy to increase the size and number 
of the gardens, the quantity and show of the products. It is only 
necessary to keep the matter moving next year and next. 

The spirit of the work and the trend of public opinion seem to be 
of the favorable sort. And if this outdoor art makes as marked a 
transformation in the school premises as has been accomplished 
inside the schoolroom by the campaign for comfort, cleanliness, sani- 
tary conditions, paint, proper wall colors, pictures and their artistic 
arrangement, libraries, organs, enthusiasm, etc., everybody will wel- 
come it, fad or no fad. With such precedents in the accomplished 
fact of indoor improvements, and with such marked cooperation of 
teachers and pupils and patrons in this first season's work for school 
gardens, the outlook for their rapid development and complete suc- 
cess is good. 

Doubtless there are teachers who wish suggestive out- 
lines for school garden work. The following outlines were 
prepared by a highly competent teacher in the Rockford 
(Illinois) High School and used in the Winnebago County 
Annual Teachers' Institute, March, 1903. 

The School Garden (General) 

I. Diagram of the school garden (see page 77). 
II. Present acquaintance with the plants of this garden. 
Of which plants can you recognize : 

1. The seed? 

2. The seedling plant and how it comes up ? 

3. The blossom apart from the plant? 

If edible, what structure is used for food ? 
III. Plant relationships illustrated in the school garden. 

1. The monocotyledons: how characterized; families repre- 

sented (grass family, lily family). 

2. The dicotyledons : how characterized ; leading families. 



72 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

IV. Soil : kinds of soil ; type represented in garden. 

i. Contrast lumpy and fine soils as to capacity for holding 
moisture. 

2. How the plant gets food from the soil. 

3. Conditions for germination and preparation of the soil to 

fulfill these. 

4. Cultivation after plant is established. 

5. Surface and deep tillage; relation of root system to tillage. 

6. Depth to which roots penetrate in well-prepared soil. How 

smother the roots ? 

7. The plant foods supplied through soil water. 

V. Propagation of plants. 

1. Seeds. 

2. Vegetative reproduction, illustrated by bulbs, tubers, cuttings, 

etc. Contrast the two modes. Which of the food crops 
are grown from seed, and which by vegetative reproduc- 
tion? Which is our chief reliance in agriculture ? 

3. Study of the potato. 

a. Food supply in tuber compared with that in seed. Nature 

of food. 

b. Modification due to underground habit. 

c. Advantages of underground habit. 

d. From what parts do the roots of a potato plant first 

spring ? 

e. Do the tubers grow above the roots or below them ? 

f. Are the tubers produced on roots or on stems? 

g. When in the life of the plant do the tubers begin to form? 
Ji. Does one stalk ever bear more than one tuber? 

i. Do these stalks increase in length or diameter after the 

tuber begins to form ? 
j. How many kinds of stems has the potato ? 
k. Distinguish the feeding roots from the underground stems. 

4. Experimental work. 

a. Plant potatoes at different depths, from just under the sur- 

face to four inches. Which method gives best results ? 

b. Use seed pieces of varying sizes, from those with no eye 

up to the whole potato. 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



73 



c. Any difference in value of cutting from stem to stem end 

and bud end ? 

d. Which is better, one large piece or several small ones ? 

e. What is the order of sprouting of the eyes ? 

f. How prevent potato scab? 



Study of the Seed 

I. External structure : hilum (the scar) ; micropyle (little opening) ; 
coats, texture, function. 

II. Embryo : cotyledons (seed leaves); caulicle (little stem); hypo- 
cotyl (part of the caulicle below the cotyledons); plumule 
(little bud). 

III. Food supply : where stored ; relative amount ; tests for starch, 
oil, proteid. 



Kinds of Seeds 


Bean 


Squash 


Sun- 
flower 


Morning- 
glory 


i. Sketch showing external 
features (name hilum 
and micropyle) 










2. Texture of coats 










3. Sketch embryo laid open, 
and name parts 










4. Texture of cotyledons 










5. Character of food ; where 
stored 










Development of plumule 











74 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

IV. Escape of parts. 

1. Problems to be solved by the seed. 

a. Extrication of parts from the seed coats. 

b. Getting the first root started downward and fixed in the 

soil. 

c. Getting the stem started upward out of the soil and into 

the light without injuring the young leaves. 

2. Behavior while germinating. 

a. First visible phenomena. Illustrate differences in hard- 
ness by cutting dry seeds and soaked ones. Increase in 




Fig. 47. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 

size. Sketch (1) dry bean, natural size ; (2) bean show- 
ing wrinkling of coats (explain how this helps in the 
extrication of parts from the coat); (3) soaked bean 
when coat fits smoothly once more. 
Experiment showing expansive power of germinating seeds. 

a. First part to appear. From what part of the seed does it 

come? Advantage in being pointed at the tip. 

b. Direction taken by the root when it comes out. Observe 

direction taken by seeds placed in different positions in 
the germinator. Change the position of the seeds. Is 
there any advantage to the plant in having the first root 
grow downward ? 

c. Growth of root. Where does it take place ? 

d. Growth of stem. Where does it take place ? 

e. Direction of growth of root and stem. 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



75 



f. What part of the root bends when it turns from the hori- 

zontal position ? 

g. If the tip is removed, will the root turn? 

h. Part first appearing above the surface. Reason for the 
manner in which the soil is penetrated by the rising stem. 
i. How the embryo extricates itself from its coats. 
j. Turning upward of the stem in the older seedlings. 



Study of Parts 


Bean 


Squash 


Morning- 
glory 


Pea 


Corn 


i. Part first appearing 
above the surface 












2. How break through the 
soil ? 












3. What parts extricated 
from coats ? 












4. How extricated from 
coats ? 












5. Do the cotyledons rise 
above ground ? 












6. Changes in cotyledons 
as growth continues 













Conditions for germination. 

The variance in conditions each time should involve but a single 
factor. 

1. Germination dependent upon moisture. 

a. Blotting paper, wet and dry. 

b. Sawdust, wet and dry. 

c. Good soil, wet and dry. 

2. Germination as dependent upon heat. Plant seeds in two pots 

containing similar conditions, but keep one indoors, the other 
outside. Try with (1) loam soil; (2) clay soil ; (3) sand. 

3. Germination as dependent on light. Keep soil moisture and 

heat constant, but place one pot in the light and the other 
in the dark. 



7 6 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The above represents most of the study for three days 
at the institute. In addition there was an outline for one 
day's work on trees and one day's work on birds. 

In Vol. VI, Part III, of the Proceedings of the Amer- 
ican Park and Outdoor' Art Association, published March, 
1903 (Charles Mulford Robinson, Secretary, 65 South 
Washington Street, Rochester, New York), is a very valuable 
bibliography of the school-garden movement in the United 
States. The list of articles is too long to reproduce here. 

Circular No. 52 (revised by Dick Crosby), issued by 
the Office of Experiment Stations (A. C. True, Director) 




Fig. 48. A School Garden in Winnebago County (1905) 

United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D.C., contains a list of a few good books and bulletins on 
nature study, school gardening, and elementary agriculture 
for the common schools. A postal card will get this valuable 
little circular. For the teacher or school officer who wants to 
know about the school-garden movement there is abundant 
valuable material now available and the supply is increasing. 
At the St. Louis Exposition last year there was a corre- 
lation chart on garden work, showing how garden work 
outdoors and indoors may correlate with the regular work 
of the school. This chart was a part of the educational 



C-S Avenues and Walks L .,_ „■*; 

ii w<v , i i i 

fjd ^ ^§§§§ , — , , , , ,8 >1 # 










Fig. 49. Outline Plan of a Macdonald School Garden, 
Bowesville, Ontario, Canada 



77 



78 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

exhibit of the Hyannis, Massachusetts, Normal School. It 
was reproduced in the pamphlet on Philadelphia school 
gardens mentioned in the first of this chapter. 

True, if we could have such gardens as the Macdonald 
school gardens of Canada, better results would be obtained. 
If millionaires of the United States would find it possible 
to do as this man is doing, — doing something for the coun- 
try child, — a great educational uplift would come to the 
agricultural interests of our country and, in fact, to all 
country-school work. 

These gardens were started in the spring of 1904 in the 
provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
and Prince Edward Island. They are associated with Sir 
William Macdonald's plan for the -improvement of the 
schools of Canada, and are a notable feature of the general 
scheme of Professor James W. Robertson, director of the 
Macdonald educational movement. Since these gardens 
are a factor in an educational movement, they have been 
placed under the Department of Education in each province, 
and not under the Department of Agriculture. The councils 
in the various provinces have passed orders incorporating 
the Macdonald gardens into the various educational systems. 
This places the gardens on a broader basis than in Europe 
or in any other country. They are attached to the ordinary 
country schools and are controlled by the local school 
authorities and by the taxpayers. The gardens vary in size 
from one acre to three acres or more. In general, the cost of 
maintaining them for three years is met by the Macdonald 
fund, as are also the expenses of the traveling instructor. 

From a report on the Macdonald school gardens for the 
county of Carleton, Ontario, issued by R. H. Cowley, 
Inspector of Public Schools, the following is taken : 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



79 



While the plan of laying out the gardens varies according to soil, 
surface, and location, the accompanying outline of the Bowesville 
garden suggests the general features that have been kept in view. 
These include a belt of ornamental native trees and shrubs surround- 
ing the grounds; two walks each, about one hundred yards long, 
between rows of trees ; a playground about half an acre in area lor 
the boys ; a lawn of about a quarter of an acre for the girls, bordered 
with some light and graceful shade, such as cut-leaf birch ; a small 
orchard, in which are grown a few varieties of the fruit trees most 
profitable to the district ; a forest plot, in which the most important 




Fig. 50. A Model for a Country School 

Canadian trees will be grown from seed and by transplanting ; a plot 
for cultivating the wild herbs, vines, and shrubs of the district ; space 
for individual plots and special experimental plots ; an attractive 
approach to the school, including open lawn, large flowering plants, 
foliage, rockery, ornamental shrubs, etc. 

The special experimental plots are, as a rule, larger than the 
individual plots. They are used for such purposes as the study of 
rotation of crops, values of fertilizers, effects of spraying, selection of 
seeds, merits of soils, productiveness and quality of different varieties 
of crops, and many other similar subjects. At one school a special 
study was made of corn, clover, tomatoes, and cabbage ; at another 



80 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

beans, peas, beets, and potatoes occupied the experimental plots ; at 
still another some extra attention was given to plots of pumpkins, 
squash, cabbage, and cauliflower. At all the gardens special plots will 
be devoted to small fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, goose- 
berries, currants. The experimental plots vary in area from two 
hundred to two thousand square feet, but where the quantity of 
ground is restricted the experiments may be successfully carried out 
on plots of a much smaller average size. 

With reference to the place of the garden in school work 
the report says : 

The work of the garden is recognized as a legitimate part of the 
school programme, and is interwoven already with a considerable part 
of the other studies. The garden is becoming the outer class room of 
the school, and the plots are its blackboards. The garden is not an 
innovation, or an excrescence, or an addendum, or a diversion. It is a 
happy field of expression, an organic part of the school in which boys 
and girls work among growing things and grow themselves in body 
and mind and spiritual outlook. 

Of the advantages, the following summary only is given 
here : 

i. Educationally it affords a release from the dull routine of the 
schoolroom and puts the pupil out into the fresh air and sunlight. 
It is a means of help by affording scope for motor activities that are 
natural to growing children. The garden work is correlated with much 
of the formal work of the school, such as arithmetic, reading, composi- 
tion, drawing, etc. It serves as an introduction to the development of 
literary appreciation, as the " ability to appreciate the charm of many 
of the best poems depends not a little on ability to form visual images 
of natural objects." In this respect, if the teacher in the country school 
is alert, the country child has the advantage over the city child ; for 
"the urban eye of the town-bred child, who has never been interested 
in garden or field, must fail to catch the imagery of our best nature 
poems." 

2. Economically the school garden teaches the composition and 
care of the soil, the best conditions for plant life, the value of fertil- 
izers, seed selection, and the like. 



SCHOOL GARDENS 8 I 

3. Nationally the school garden develops an interest in the funda- 
mental industry of the country. There develops the sense of owner- 
ship and respect for property. "In the care of their own plots the 
pupils fight common enemies and learn that a bad weed in a neglected 
plot may make trouble for many others. The garden is a pleasant 
avenue of communication between the school and the home, relating 
them in a new and living way, and thereby strengthening the public 
interest in the school as a national institution." 

One more quotation must be given with reference to the 
school garden during vacation : 

The general adoption of school gardens may naturally bring about 
a desire to keep the rural schools open all summer, closing them in 
the winter when the roads are worst and the weather severe. The 




Fig. 51. Another Model for a Country School 

conveying of pupils to consolidated schools may also help to induce 
an arrangement of this kind. In the meantime there is no insurmount- 
able difficulty or very serious problem in keeping the school garden 
decent during the long summer vacation. Even if the garden were 
to deteriorate from neglect during holidays, the fact would be of 
altogether minor consequence against school gardens, since a well- 
ordered pupil rather than a well-ordered garden is the supreme end of 
it all. If the pupils do not provide for their plots during vacation, by 
all means let the weeds grow. The worst possible mistake in such a 



82 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

case would be to pay a janitor or some other person to take care of 
the plots for indifferent and unmindful pupils. At some school gardens 
in Carleton County last summer some pupils returned after vacation to 
weed-choked plots in which their flowers and vegetables compared very 
unfavorably with those of their more diligent companions. Their silent 
observation of this fact, and their strenuous efforts to redeem their 
plots, impressed upon them a lesson of moral and material value. 

Aside from the school-garden work in Winnebago County, 
Illinois, for the past three years, other counties in Illinois 
report as follows : 

Marion has ten school gardens ; ten per cent of the schools in 
McHenry County have gardens ; Coles County had a garden of one 
acre for a graded school ; Peoria County had twenty-five gardens 
in country schools ; Griggsville, Pike County, has had a garden for 
several years ; and mention must be made of the school garden of 
the Cottage Grove school near Springfield. Mention of the work 
of this country school, with illustrations of the work of the children, 
is made in the chapter on manual training. 

It is very gratifying to see the interest that normal schools 
are taking with reference to school gardens. It would make 
this chapter too long to give even a brief account of all 
that is being done by these institutions for the training 
of teachers. Only the work of two will be noticed here, 
namely, the movement at the Eastern Illinois Normal 
School at Charleston and that at the Central Illinois Nor- 
mal School at Normal. 

Professor Otis W. Caldwell, instructor in botany at the 
Charleston Normal School, has issued a valuable bulletin 
on the school garden, well illustrated. This bulletin is val- 
uable because its contents are not based on theory alone. 
For several years a successful school garden has been car- 
ried on at this normal school. Speaking of the garden in 
connection with the country school, Mr. Caldwell says : 



SCHOOL GARDENS 



83 



In rural schools it will probably be found desirable to grow things 
that require least care during vacation, — shrubbery and such things 
in general as will serve to beautify the school ground, rather than the 
economic plants that are of greater relative significance educationally 
to the pupils of the city schools. But besides these there should 
be some beds of flowering 
plants, and these should not 
be allowed to suffer from 
lack of attention. It should 
be an easy matter to find 
in the neighborhood school 
officers or young people in- 
terested enough in the school 
ground to give the small care 
requisite to caring for these 
things during the vacation 
time. In some localities 
there are magnificent farm- 
houses and barns standing 
in beautifully kept plots, em- 
phasizing the fact that the 
places where children are 
educated are ugly with weeds 
and general negligence. A 
little care given to the school 
ground during vacation 
would enable teachers and pupils to make it beautiful and useful during 
school days. The lack of proper care during vacation time should not 
be used as an argument against any proper use during the days of school. 

It has been my great pleasure to inspect the gardens at 
the Central Normal School at Normal. If any one is in 
doubt about the place of the school garden in a system of 
education, his doubts must be removed after visiting this 
place and listening to an explanation by President Felmley 
as the various plots are visited. In this way you catch the 
spirit and significance that you cannot get by reading an 



"*-, 






w 






♦1ft., 






i 






IP " 


*»^S 






'""SI 


T •*.%. 








•H.-iL^> 


: . ' !. 


■ > 






' ■ j 



Fig. 



Trees set out 



in 1905 



8 4 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



account of it. President Felmley has issued an excellent 
bulletin on "Agriculture and Horticulture in the Rural 
School." In this publication is described the school-garden 
idea as it is at his school. One quotation is sufficient to show 

the author's ideal. 

The special instruc- 
tion offered in this line 
is not merely to train 
skillful farmers. It is 
quite important that 
farmer boys and girls 
learn to appreciate and 
love the country. There 
need be here no divi- 
sion in material or 
method. The knowl- 
edge of soil and atmos- 
phere, of plant and 
animal life, that makes 
him an intelligent pro- 
ducer puts him in sym- 
pathetic touch with 
these activities of 
nature. If the farmer 
as he trudges down the 
corn rows under the June sun sees only clods and weeds and corn, he 
leads an empty and a barren life. But if he knows of the work of the 
moisture in air and soil, of the use of air to root and leaf, of the myste- 
rious chemistry of the sunbeam, of the vital forces in the growing plant, 
of the bacteria in the soil liberating its elements of fertility ; if he 
sees all the relation of all these natural forces to his own work ; if he 
can follow his crop to the market, to foreign lands, to the mill, to the 
oven and the table ; if he knows of the hundreds of commercial prod- 
ucts obtained from his corn or the animals that it fattens, he then realizes 
that he is no mere toiler ; he is marshaling the hosts of the universe, 
and upon the skill of his generalship depends the life of the nations. 




Fig. 53. Nature Study 



CHAPTER V 
INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 

One article of the Teacher's Creed given in Chapter II 
is as follows : " I believe in beauty in the schoolroom, 
in the home, in daily life, and out of doors." An attempt 
has been made in Chapters III and IV to show the value 
and the means of securing beauty in the outdoor life as far 
as the surroundings of the school are concerned. The aim 
of Chapters V and VI will be to point out some practical 
things to be done in order to secure a corresponding condition 
affecting the indoor life of the children in country schools. 

It seems an almost impassable gulf from the modern 
sanitary city-school building, with its beautiful but simple 
architectural proportions, to the ugly, unsanitary, box-car 
structure of a building that has stood for over forty years 
in so many country districts. In the character of the build- 
ing may be found one reason why so many country children 
are paying tuition in city schools. 

It is true that better work may be done in a dilapidated 
country-school building than is done in the best up-to-date 
city building. But the likelihood is that poorer work will be 
done in the former than in the latter, to say nothing of the 
educational influence of surroundings ; for the records do 
not show that live, enthusiastic, well-trained teachers are 
rushing to the neglected country-school building for a sal- 
ary ranging from twenty-four to forty dollars per month for 
a year of five to eight months. 

85 



86 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

But a better day is coming for the country child. A cen- 
tral building to take the place of the time-honored but 
worn-out district schoolhouses will give some help ; but con- 
solidation will come slowly, and in the meantime we cannot 
sit and dream. Duty demands that something be done for 
the hundreds of thousands of boys and girls now sitting 
amid forlorn surroundings. Just what that something shall 
be will, of course, vary with the prevailing conditions in the 
various districts. 

It would be a fine thing if, in every district, we could have 
an ideal school board that would provide ideal conditions so 
that first-class work could be clone by teachers and children 
from the first to the last of the school term. But the aver- 
age school director is about the same in educational ideals 
as the community he represents. A great work needs to 
be done to create a higher public sentiment among the 
country people as a whole. The county superintendent of 
schools can do much in this direction, and his most power- 
ful aids are the camera and the printing press ; but in an 
educational campaign of this character the results will come 
slowly. The best results will come when the children of 
to-day, who are getting new ideals, become the teachers, 
school officers, and patrons of a new to-morrow. Here is 
the great promise, and the person who has a real interest 
in the educational uplift for the country school must have 
patience and learn to labor and to wait. 

School directors can do something. Instead of spending 
thirty-five or fifty dollars of the school funds for a wonder- 
ful chart portraying the whole scheme in the education of 
man from the cradle to the grave, why not use the same 
amount of money for paint ? The chart stands neglected 
because the teacher cannot use it in the average school. 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



87 



A planetarium advertised for thirty-five dollars, to " clearly 
illustrate and practically solve the difficult problems re- 
lating to celestial sphere, ecliptic, equinoxes, apogee and 
perigee, zodiac, the seasons of Venus, right ascension and 
declination, retrograde motion of the planets, etc.," may 
be a necessary piece of apparatus in the hands of a 
teacher who knows how to use it ; but country schools are 
needing shades for the windows, a hard-wood floor, paint 
for the walls, a towel rack, a water tank, a jacket around the 
stove, and many 
other things, 
more than plane- 
tariums and geo- 
metrical blocks. 
And yet the 
school officers 
are throwing 
away good coin 
of the realm in 
such purchases 
of apparatus be- 
yond the use of 
the average country school. Rather use the money to 
purchase lumber, paint, blackboards, and soap. 

If directors will do nothing to secure sanitary conditions 
to a moderate degree, then some responsibility must rest 
upon the teacher. A teacher ought not to be compelled to 
scrub the floor and wash the windows ; but rather than 
teach in a dirty building from month to month, I would 
clean it or quit the school. The teacher can organize a 
sanitary commission, with herself as president and chief of 
medical staff. The children will gladly enlist as members 




Fig. 54. A Stove Jacket 



88 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

of the ambulance corps, for no doubt there are dead things 
to be removed from the schoolroom. One such instance I 
recall in a country school in Winnebago County in 1904. 
The teacher has now been promoted to the city schools 
of Rockford. She was determined to have a clean room, and 
she succeeded ; but (alas for the country school !) she was 
too valuable to be retained there. 

After the house is cleaned, with the exercise of tact the 
cooperation of the children can be enlisted to keep it rea- 
sonably clean in all kinds of weather. But do not disband 
the sanitary commission, even if the house is clean. As 
chief of the medical staff, visit the school directors and ask 
for a bushel of lime, if the school funds will warrant such 
an extravagant outlay. Tell them you know where you can 
get a few gallons of water and you would like to put the 
lime in it. The average director may become alarmed over 
the possible use of so much limewater ; allay his fears by 
telling him that you do not intend giving it to the children, 
but that the plastering is old and discolored and you intend 
to give it a good coat of whitewash as well as to cover up 
some pencil markings to be found on the interior of the out- 
houses. These two things can be done, and other things 
will come in due time if we faint not. I am in sympathy, 
under proper conditions, with the movement to teach higher 
subjects in the country school ; but if it is a choice' be- 
tween higher mathematics and soap, and soap is needed, I 
choose soap. I do not care who makes it, so long as it is 
anti-dirt in its affections. And where cleanliness is lacking, 
instead of foreign-language work with a study of that won- 
derful pair of twins on the banks of the Tiber, let there be 
substituted the work of the " Gold Dust Twins." Many of 
our country schoolhouses need to be purified as by fire. 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



89 



Perhaps the interior woodwork of the school needs to be 
freshened up with a coat of paint. About as nice a job of 
painting as I have seen done in a district schoolhouse was 
done by one of our teachers during her last term of school. 
She told the directors that if they would furnish the pre- 
pared paint she would put it on. Not that I believe that 
teachers should become scrub women, painters, and plas- 
terers ; but if 
school author- 
ities would not 
do their duty, if 
I wanted to 
teach, and if I 
had to live in a 
room six hours 
of the day for 
twenty-two days 
in the month for 
six months of 
the year, then 
for the children's 
sake I would cure some things rather than endure them, 
or I would get out of the schoolroom and stay out. 

Then there is the stove, standing usually in the middle 
of the room. The teacher can, perhaps, do little with the 
stove except in the way of fuel or stove polish. No expla- 
nation has ever been offered why school stoves and stove 
polish are such hereditary foes. The bitter enmity has 
existed for years, and yet they were made for each other. 
Who is to blame for these long years of hatred and separa- 
tion ? With little effort an acquaintanceship could be brought 
about that would brighten into the closest friendship. 




Fig. 55. A Water Tank 



go 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



At a small expense the children can be protected from 
the direct radiation of a highly heated stove. This can be 
done by means of a sheet-iron jacket, leaving a distance of 
twelve or eighteen inches between it and the stove. Such 
a jacket can be made and adjusted by any good tinner. 
The teacher can get figures as to cost and present them to 
the directors, at the same time intelligently informing them 
as to the value of a stove jacket as a sanitary addition to 
the schoolroom. 

Every teacher should know that the air of the school- 
room becomes foul in cold weather. It can be smelt, it can 
be tasted, especially if the windows have been well nailed 
down and the fuel is not spared. If directors manifest no 
disposition to furnish a simple ventilating system, there yet 
remain one or two simple things that the teacher can and 
should do. The windows may be lowered somewhat on the 
side opposite that from which the wind is blowing ; or, 
better still, boards three or four inches wide may be fitted 
under the lower sash of the windows on each side of the 
room. Surely, as a last resort, the windows may be thrown 
up once an hour and the children made to march around 
while the air is changing. It is not a loss of time. 

As a rule, the water pail is in one corner of the room on 
a small bench, almost lost among the dinner pails and 
wraps. A pail of fresh water is brought in before school 
begins in the morning, and that oftentimes ends the 
water question for the day. The highly heated, foul atmos- 
phere of the schoolroom has its effect on the water as well 
as upon the children. A small expenditure of money will 
secure a galvanized-iron water tank with a cover, and a 
porcelain-lined sink with a waste pipe conducting to the 
exterior of the building. The cost of both need not exceed 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



91 



ten dollars. The tank should have a cover to prevent the 
water from absorbing impurities, and the sink should be 
porcelain lined to prevent rusting. A good stove jacket will 
cost ten dollars. Thus for an expenditure of twenty dollars 
— about half the cost of a chart or a planetarium — the 
sanitation of the schoolroom may be greatly improved. But 
school sanitation is not as attractive a subject as school 
decoration, though more important. 

The report of the Art Education Society and the Home 
Gardening Association of the Cleveland public schools 




Fig. 56. Studying a Traveling Art Exhibit 



for 1904 shows what one city is doing, through an organi- 
zation of teachers, to put good works of art into the school- 
room. The Cleveland Art Education Society was formed 
among the teachers of Cleveland in 1896. The purpose of 
the society was " to secure reproductions of the great pic- 
tures of the world, foreign and domestic views, for the use 
of the schools of the city, as a means of educating the 
children in the appreciation of the beautiful." As to 
results, the report states that "by means of teachers' dollar 



92 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



membership fees, entertainments, lectures, etc., $6000 was 
raised the first year. This movement has gained many 
ardent supporters among teachers, scholars, parents, and 
other public-spirited citizens, and the work has gone on 
steadily, until there are now about forty-one hundred pic- 
tures in the schools. The total cost of the pictures now 
in the Cleveland public schools aggregates $27,665.65." 
The report gives a list of the pictures, statuary, and casts 
that have been placed in the eighty school buildings of 
Cleveland. The pamphlet is well illustrated. 

In October, 1900, on my return from a visit to the cen- 
tralized schools of northeastern Ohio, it was my great 
pleasure to see some of the schoolroom decorations in the 
schools of Cleveland and Indianapolis. I then determined 
that something of art education should begin for the country 
children of my own county. Since September 1, 1901, there 
has been raised by teachers and children, by means of 
socials, entertainments, etc., the sum of $4165. Of this 
amount about $1600 has been expended for pictures ; the 
rest has been used in the purchase of such schoolroom 
furnishings as books, organs, pianos, clocks, and apparatus. 
Besides this we are indebted to interested friends for a very 
generous donation of pictures and casts. 

It was not expected that many of the country school- 
teachers of Winnebago County, in the very near future at 
least, would be able to visit the art galleries of Europe and 
study pictures. The next best thing was, if possible, to 
secure reproductions that might be studied at the annual 
teachers' institutes. Such a loan was secured for three 
consecutive years : institute of 1901, pictures by the Prang 
Educational Company of Chicago; institute of 1902, the 
best reproductions by the Soule Art Company of Boston; 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



93 



institute of 1903, excellent pictures by the Horace K. 
Turner Company of Boston. 

These pictures were hung in the assembly room and hall 
of the Rockford high-school building, and thus for a week 
the teachers could in a sense visit the great art galleries 
and in a measure begin to know the old masters. The pur- 
pose of the county superintendent was to have the teachers 
make some acquaintance with pictures, proper framing, etc., 
before buying for the schoolroom. One period (forty-five 




Fig. 57. An Improved Interior 

minutes) each day at these institutes was devoted to illus- 
trated talks on Murillo, Raphael, Millet, Rosa Bonheur, 
Corot, Breton, Michelangelo, Landseer, and Ruysdael. 

In addition to the study of pictures for those three years 
at the annual teachers' institutes an opportunity was given 
to read about art and artists. The city library of Rock- 
ford kindly loaned all the books necessary to carry out the 
course of reading. These books were placed in the assembly 
room of the high school, and one hour each day was devoted 
to reading. The list of books was printed, so that during 



94 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



the year any country teacher might continue the reading 
if she desired. The following short list, prepared by an 
art expert, contains such books as are deemed by him to be 
most useful for school libraries or for individual purchase. 



A Small Working Library for Art Education 



Puffer's Psychology of Beauty. 

La Farge's Considerations on 
Painting. 

Brown's The Fine Arts. 

Goodyear's History of Art. 

Lubke's History of Art. 

Ferguson's History of Architec- 
ture. 

Warnum's Analysis of Ornament. 

Tarbell's History of Greek Art. 

Weir's Greek Painters' Art. 

Berenson's Central Painters of 
the Renaissance. 

Brownell's French Art. 

Clement's Sacred and Legendary 
Art. 

Clement's Painters, Sculptors, 
and Engravers. 

Clement's Artists of Nineteenth 
Century. 

Hoyt's The World's Painters. 

Taine's Lectures on Art. 

Emery's How to Enjoy Pictures. 

Coffin's How to Study Pictures. 

Poore's Pictorial Composition. 

Hatton's Figure Drawing and 
Composition. 

Two books in the above list were read thoroughly 
and discussed at local teachers' meetings for two years. 
They were Burrage and Bailey's School Sanitation and 



Sturgis's The Appreciation of 
Sculpture. 

Ruskin's Modern Painters. 

Moody's Lectures and Lessons on 
Art. 

Meyer's Handbook of Ornament. 

Crane's Line and Form. 

Day's Ornament and its Applica- 
tion. 

Mayeux's Manual of Decorative 
Composition. 

Jackson's Lessons on Decorative 
Design. 

Maginnis's Pen Drawing. 

Cross's Freehand Drawing. 

Cross's Mechanical Drawing. 

Brown's Letters and Lettering. 

Burrage and Bailey's School San- 
itation and Decoration. 

Sanford's Art Crafts for Begin- 
ners. 

Periodicals 

School Arts Book. 
Masters in Art. 
International Studio. 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



95 



Decoration and Emery's How to Enjoy Pictures. These two 
books are especially commended to school-teachers for their 
private libraries, and the first-mentioned should be read by 
school officers, as it gives valuable suggestions in regard to 
interior decoration. 

A school social once a year, if managed properly, is a means 
of uplift for the entire district. The programme should be 
thought out carefully and should be of a simple educative 




Fig. 58. Pictures and Books 
These pictures and books were bought with the proceeds of school socials 

character. Amateur theatricals should not be attempted 
in the average country school. Suppose October to be 
observed as a library and picture month. Literature and 
art should go together. The following suggestive plan 
and programme was given to our teachers at the beginning 
of our campaign. 

I. Harvest home social during the month of October, for the pur- 
pose of securing books for the school and one or two 
choice pictures for schoolroom decoration. Admission, 
adults, 15 cents ; school children, 10 cents. 



96 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

II. Preparation of room : Decorate with autumn leaves, grasses, 
flowers, fruits, grains, etc. 
III. Suggestive programme : 

i. Song by the school : " Illinois." 

2. Recitation : " October's Bright Blue Weather" (Helen Hunt 

Jackson). 

3. Recitation : " When the Frost is on the Pumpkin " (James 

Whitcomb Riley). 

4. Autumn flower exercise : Various school journals contain 

suggestions for this number. 

5. Music. 

6. Songs of Labor (Whittier). 

a. " The Huskers." 

b. " The Corn-Song." 

7. Song by the school. 

8. Short essay : " The Value of a School Library." 

9. Short essay : " Schoolroom Decoration." 

10. The pupils' reading circle : A brief statement by the teacher 

of the purpose of the organization and giving the list of 
books for the current year. 

11. Music. 

12. A picture study : Here is an opportunity to interest patrons 

and children in art and artists. Comments should not 
be too technical. A few good examples are given below. 
Suitable pictures for October are the following: 
The Gleaners." 
'■ The Gleaners." 
" Oxen going to Work." 
The End of Labor." 
The Haymaker." 
" The Shepherdess." 

Secure a penny Perry picture of Millet's "Gleaners," or 
a larger one if possible, and place it on the front wall in 
plain view. Have one of the oldest pupils read short 
selections about this picture and the man who painted it 
(see Hurll's Millet, Riverside Art Series ; see also Julia 



a. 


Millet, " 


b. 


Breton, " 


c. 


Troyon, 


d. 


Breton, " 


e. 


Adam, " 


/• 


Le Rolle, 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 97 

Cartwright's Life of Millet and Wilson's Picture Study in 
Elementary Schools for material relating to Millet). 

13. Interesting and instructive bits of history about a picture 

or an artist, as above. 

14. Song by the school. 

15. Harvest home lunch: Refreshments of some kind will be a 

pleasant feature and a means of revenue as well. A basket 
tastefully trimmed with autumn leaves and filled with lunch 
for two can be sold to the highest bidder, and the proceeds 
may go to the library and picture fund. 

16. Closing song by all : "America." 

Thornbury tells us that the subject of the "Temeraire" 
was suggested to Turner by his friend Stanfield, while they 
were on a holiday excursion. 

It was at these times that Turner talked and joked his best, snatch- 
ing now and then a moment to print on his quick brain some tone 
of sky, some gleam of water, some sprinkling light of oar, some 
glancing sunshine crossbarring a sail. Suddenly there moved down 
upon the artist's boat the grand old vessel that had been taken prisoner 
at the Nile and that led the van at Trafalgar. She loomed pale and 
ghastly, and was being towed to her last moorings at Deptford by a 
little fiery, saucy-looking steam tug. 

"There is a fine subject, Turner," said Stanfield. Tur- 
ner's picture represents the sunset of a great day in 
England's naval history, — departing of the wooden navy; 
day of steel and steam soon to dawn. While studying this 
picture let the pupils read or commit portions of Holmes's 
poem written when it was proposed that the American 
frigate Constitution should meet with a like fate. 

The pictures of Millet appeal strongly to many who know 
but little about art. The artist sympathized with toil, and his 
great genius was used to ennoble labor. Millet's art reveals 



9 8 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



the dignity in country life and toil. He teaches an impor- 
tant lesson to every American. Mrs. Cartvvright says : 

He knew, as few masters have ever known, how to put a whole 
world of thought into an individual action, how to express the lives 
and characters of bygone generations in a single gesture ; and with true 
poetic insight he makes us realize the deeper meaning that lies hidden 
below the eternal destiny of the human race, — the age-long struggle 
of man with nature, which will endure while seedtime and harvest, 
summer and winter, follow each other upon the face of the earth. 



■k Hi ° .. " 




I u-;j ™1tr 


rWgW' 







Fig. 59. A Room in the Seward Consolidated School 

"The Sower" is another picture which appeals to the 
many. The figure represents a phase of farming fast disap- 
pearing. The patent seeder with a team of horses is now re- 
garded as indispensable in up-to-date farming. To compare 
thoughtfully the picture itself with such a description of it 
as this by Mrs. Cartwright is a practice to be commended : 

And as he meditated over these old memories the great picture 
grew into being, and he painted that wonderful form of the sower, 
striding with majestic tread across the newly plowed field, flinging 
the precious seed broadcast. Night is falling, the shadows are length- 
ening over the wind-swept fields, and scarce a gleam in the western 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



99 



sky lights up the winter landscape ; but still he goes on his way, careless 
alike of the coming darkness or of the flocks of hungry crows that fol- 
low in his track. In that solitary figure, with his measured tread and 
superb action, the whole spirit of the peasant's calling is summed up 
with a power and concentration of thought worthy of Michelangelo. 

Millet was ever true to his ideals. He was willing to 
suffer for them. Herein is another lesson our children need 
to learn. Moreover, he teaches us to discriminate between 




S TSr^ - * •■''•0L -TAB 



Fig. 60. A R< 



the Seward Consolidated School 



conventional and vital beauty. When Sensier urged Millet 
to make his peasants more attractive, Millet's reply was : 

That is all very fine, but you must remember that beauty does not 
consist merely in the shape or coloring of the face. It lies in the 
general effect of the form, in suitable and appropriate action. Your 
pretty peasant girls are not fit to pick up fagots, to glean under the 
August sun, or draw water from the well. When I paint a mother I 
shall try and make her beautiful simply by the look which she bends 
upon her child. Beauty is expression. 

The great mass of country people should be led to appre- 
ciate the beautiful in art as well as in nature, and the place 
to begin is in the country school. A start can be made with 
the Perry pictures and the Prang platinettes. 

L OF 



IOO AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

In June, 1902, a friend from Boston visited our schools, 
and in token of his appreciation of efforts made to put good 
pictures into the schoolrooms he decorated a schoolroom at 
his own expense. 

The pictures are fourteen in number, well framed. The 
following are the subjects: 

1. Stuart's " Washington." 

2. St. Gaudens's " Lincoln." 

3. St. Gaudens's " Shaw Memorial." 

4. Millet's " The Gleaners." 

5. Turner's "Approach to Venice" (in colors). 

6. Turner's " Fighting Temeraire." 

7. William Morris Hunt's " Flight of Night." 

8. Ruysdael's "Windmill." 

9. Van Marcke's " Water Gate." 

10. " Lower Falls, Yellowstone" (in color). 

1 1 . Raphael's " Sistine Madonna." 

12. Mauve's "Shepherd's Lane." 

13. " Portrait of Longfellow." 

14. Birgel's " Twilight." 

The same gentleman, with the same spirit of generosity, 
gave all the pictures and casts to decorate the first con- 
solidated country-school building" in Illinois, an account of 
which, with illustrations, is found in another chapter. 

The Illinois Congress of Mothers is always ready to 
advise with teachers about schoolroom decoration, as the 
following announcement shows : 

The Committee on School Decoration of the Illinois Congress of 
Mothers cordially offers its services to any one engaged in school 
beautifying. 

1. The selection of wall tints. 

Give size of room, height of ceiling, and number and direction 
of windows. Samples of suitable tints will be sent. 



INDOOR ART AND DECORATION 



IOI 



2. Choice of pictures. 

State amount to be expended and give dimensions of wall 
space on which picture is to hang ; also direction of light 
received and average age of pupils in room. 

A number of suitable subjects will be suggested and Perry- 
copies of same sent to assist in selection. When purchase 
is certain, pictures themselves may be sent on approval. 

3. Selection of frame, mat, etc. 

4. Choice of casts suited to schools ; also of effective pottery, with 

suggestions for placing. 
Hoping in this way to make available to the smaller towns of 
Illinois, and to the country schools, the varied assortment and excel- 
lent values possible to a great city, the committee invites you to make 
free use of its offer. 

In the matter of schoolroom decoration it is not to be 
expected that country schools can excel or equal city schools 




Fig. 61. A Room in the Seward Consolidated School 



like those of Cleveland or Indianapolis. But something 
can be done. The following, from the chapter " The Old 



102 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Country Schoolroom" in School Sanitation and Decoration, 
by Burrage and Bailey, is direct and to the point : 

But suppose such things cannot be had. An old picture frame 
may be found, scraped, rubbed down with oil or shellac, a glass fitted 
into it, and a back made, which may be removed easily. A full- 
page engraving from a magazine, a half-tone reproduction, a Japanese 
print, an unmounted photograph, — such pictures anybody can pro- 
cure in these days, — these may be mounted on gray cards of uniform 
size to fit the frame, and each displayed for a day or two, or a week 
or more. 

In any event the teacheV should decree that nothing but beautiful 
things shall be hung upon the walls. Better bare walls than debased 
and debasing art ; better nothing in the way of decoration than deco- 
ration which is worse than nothing. The following list may prove use- 
ful to the country teacher who wishes to be able to name one desirable 
work of art, and then another and another as the interest increases. 

Abbott Thayer's " Caritas." 

Millet's " Feeding her Birds." 

Raphael's " Madonna of the Chair." 

Barye's " Lion and Snake " (cast). 

"A Cathedral" (Notre Dame, Canterbury, or Amiens). 

Guido Reni's " Aurora." 

Corot's " Paysage." 

Regnault's "Automedon." 

Delia Robbia's "A Bambino" (cast). 

Watts's " Sir Galahad." 

Turner's " Old Temeraire." 

Donatello's " Infant St. John" (cast). 

Make a bold beginning and believe in your ultimate success in 
securing what you want for the children. 

It is not necessary to move to the cities to have the 
children come in touch with literature and art. 



CHAPTER VI 
SCHOOL LIBRARIES 

During the last two or three years articles have ap- 
peared in the leading magazines, and in the public press 
as well, describing the wonderful growth of public libraries. 
Millionaires are erecting buildings and endowing libraries 
and art galleries for city people and their children, but who 
is making an effort to supply good reading matter for the 
vast number of children in the country schools ? In The 
World's Work for July, 1905, is an article, " Libraries for 
Everybody," by Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress. 
This article is well illustrated with charts showing the 
growth and distribution of public libraries in the United 
States. Just how many people living on farms are included 
in the word " everybody," the last word irr the title of the 
article by Mr. Putnam, is, of course, a matter of conjec- 
ture. It is safe to say that there are thousands of homes 
and hundreds of thousands of children in the country dis- 
tricts to whom good books are practically unknown. 

Before describing how good books are secured and 
teachers trained to use and take care of them in country 
schools, let us see what is being done, not by gifts of mil- 
lionaires but through the public school, to develop libraries 
and to have children acquire the habit of reading good 
books. The reports for 1904, issued by the state superin- 
tendents of Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Minne- 
sota, and Illinois, show that commendable progress is being 

103 



104 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

made. The following summary is interesting, for it repre- 
sents a movement and shows results that are not widely 
known to the general public. A fine building for library 
purposes standing on a choice site in a city can be seen 
of men, but the country-school library movement is not 
so conspicuous, though more far-reaching. 

Wisconsin has a library law requiring the levy of ten 
cents per capita for each person of school age living in the 
school district for a library fund for that district. A list of 
books is carefully prepared in the office of the state superin- 
tendent. The inference from the state report is that every 
country school in Wisconsin has a library, thus represent- 
ing a total of 817,075 volumes purchased by a tax of ten 
cents per capita. There are, in addition, in cities not under 
per capita tax, 125,000 volumes in school libraries, thus 
making a total of 942,075 volumes of good books in the 
schools of Wisconsin. 

Iowa has a law requiring the purchase of good books for 
country children. The books are selected by the State 
Educational Board of Examiners; and 10,706 school dis- 
tricts have libraries representing 614,492 volumes, 73,479 
of which were added for the year ending June 30, 1904. 
This represents an outlay for that year of $25,548.31 from 
district funds and $10,439.20 raised by voluntary efforts. 
Iowa has 6821 country schools with suitable library cases. 

The Indiana report makes no specific mention of " dis- 
trict-school " libraries, but states that there are 517,543 
volumes in the Young People's Reading Circle libraries. 
Of this number 81,273 were added the past year. 

Minnesota has state aid to the extent of $15,000 an- 
nually for school-library purposes. State Superintendent 
Oleson reports this amount inadequate. For the year 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



I05 



ending July 31, 1904, there were 587,299 volumes in school 
libraries, 69,400 of which were added during the past year. 

Missouri has 468,905 volumes in 5696 districts. As 
there are 9974 school districts in the state, the inference 
is that 4278 school districts have no libraries. This is 28 
districts more than in Illinois. 

Illinois has no state school-library law or state aid, and 
no state list of books. The report for 1904 gives 7499 




Fig. 62. A Country-School Library 

school districts (city and country) having 896,251 volumes 
in libraries, 87,021 of which were added the past year. 
There are 4252 school districts (city and country) without 
any libraries. 

Of the 4252 Illinois school districts without library books, 
it is safe to claim 4000 as being one-room country schools. 
Now not a single one of these 4000 schools is necessarily 



106 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

a poor school because of the absence of a library. I am 
willing to allow that a well-trained normal or university 
graduate is teaching in every one of those 4000 districts, 
and thus by the superior character of work done by the 
teacher the absence of good reference books on history, 
biography, geography, literature, and art is not as great a 
loss to the children as it might be. But in the great majority 
of cases such teachers are not likely to be found in such 
districts. If they were, there would be good libraries in 3999 
out of the 4000 districts, because such teachers would find 
a way to get books and, what is better, would make such 
good use of them that the children's lives would be en- 
riched ; and through the children there would be a higher 
ideal as to the character of the literature to be used in the 
home, if any at all had been used there. 

It is not for me to offer any explanation why the chil- 
dren of 4000 country schools of the great and wealthy 
state of Illinois have no libraries. In my own county of 
Winnebago two reasons are sometimes offered why books 
are not purchased by school officers out of the school 
funds, as the law allows them. The first is that the district 
is too poor, and the second is that the teacher does not 
see to it that the books are properly cared for and efforts 
made to have the children acquire the habit of reading 
good books. This last reason is more serious than the first ; 
and it must be confessed that the indifference of many 
teachers to the library offers good excuse for it. The plea 
of poverty can have but little weight as an excuse why at 
least five dollars' worth of books may not be added annu- 
ally in every country district in Illinois. There are grounds 
for believing that school funds are wasted in some direc- 
tions. Directors, and most often the ones who claim that 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 107 

taxes are already too high, become helpless in the presence 
of an agent with a wonderful chart, and sign away thirty 
dollars in the purchase of a piece of apparatus which the 
teacher cannot or does not use. 

A few years ago such an agent came to Winnebago 
County, and fully a dozen boards of directors bought the 
chart. Let us see what thirty dollars would do towards a 
good school library : 

1905 set (20 books) of Illinois Pupils' Reading Circle . . $13.15 

One Webster's International Dictionary 10.00 

Four supplementary first readers 1.00 

" " second " 1.60 

" " third " ........ 1.80 

One year's subscription to the Little Chronicle 1.50 

Total $29.05 

No, poverty is not a sufficient excuse. Even if the 
teacher paid no more attention to the above books than 
she does to the chart, still the books are a better invest- 
ment, for some of the pupils will read in spite of the in- 
difference of the teacher. 

William Hawley Smith, in The Evolution of D odd, says : 

And for you, who send your six-year-olds to school with a single 
book, and grumble because you have to buy even so much of an out- 
fit, what are you going to do about it when your boy drains all the 
life out of the little volume in a couple of weeks or a month ? He 
knows the stories by heart, and after that he says them over, day by 
day, because he must, and not in the least because he cares to. 

As to the second reason, that teachers do not use the 
books and do not compel the children to use them properly, 
there is too much truth. For six years at the Winnebago 
County Annual Teachers' Institute, during the library hour, 



io8 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



an effort has been made to teach teachers how to care for 
books and make them an efficient factor in vitalizing the 
regular work of the school, and at the same time to teach 
them how to interest children in books so that they will 
want to read after they leave school. This last accomplish- 
ment is by no means to be despised. As a rule, I believe 




Fig. 63. Library Case and Reading Table 

that if teachers make the right use of library books and 
apparatus, they will have but little trouble in inducing the 
average board of directors to supply them. 

On July 1, 1899, there were fifty-six districts out of one 
hundred and eighteen in Winnebago County (outside the 
city of Rockford) without school libraries. September 1, 
1899, began with us the Twentieth Century Forward Li- 
brary Movement. Teachers, children, parents, and county 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 109 

superintendents cooperated to secure the following results 
so far as the local district libraries are concerned : 

Number of volumes in 1S99 1386 

" " " added " 1900 1542 

" !9oi 2483 

" 1902 1284 

" J 9°3 772 

" !904 33° 

" T 905 55 2 

Total 8349 

The decrease in the number of volumes put into local 
school libraries since 1901 is because of the growth of the 
Winnebago Country District School Traveling Libraries. 
The increase of books for local district libraries has been 
largely the result of socials held by pupils and teachers. 

Net proceeds of school socials, 1901 1868.68 

" " " " " 1902 1072.09 

i9 c 3 §05.15 

J9°4 5 26 -'3 

" " " !9°5 935- ^5 

Total $4207.90 

Not all of the money so raised was expended for books. 
Some was used for pictures, organs, pianos, curtains, 
shades, clocks, maps, desks, globes, and the like. 

Amount expended from school funds for books, 1901 $525.21 

" " " " " " " 1902 120.96 

" " " " " " " 1903 89.10 

" " " 1904 12.13 

1905 106.S6 

Total $854.26 

The decrease in amount of our district funds expended 
by school officers is due primarily to the notion that a few 
books bought one year are sufficient for the next ten years 



no AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

or so ; and also to the fact that the Winnebago County 
District Traveling Libraries bring new and better books 
every year to each school district. 

The traveling libraries for the district schools of Winne- 
bago County began in 1 90 1 and were a result of my obser- 
vation of the helpfulness of the Rockford Public Library to 
me when a teacher in the high school in that city. As there 
were traveling libraries from the city library to the various 
school buildings of Rockford, I thought that something 
similar to this might be inaugurated for the country chil- 
dren. The only questions to solve were how to get the 
money and how to make the libraries travel. 

For several reasons I thought it desirable to get all the 
schools of a township together at some central point in 
June each year, and have appropriate closing exercises. At 
these exercises diplomas were awarded to all pupils entitled 
to promotion to the high school, to pupils having read six 
books during the school year, and to teachers who had 
completed the professional study for that year. An admission 
fee of ten cents was charged, and the net proceeds went to 
build up a traveling-library fund ; the County Board of Super- 
visors also made appropriations for two years. My county 
board has always supported my efforts to build up the schools. 

For the first year forty boxes of books were available. 
In 1902 eighteen more were added, and thirteen more dur- 
ing the summer of 1905, making a total of seventy-three 
libraries, representing 4248 volumes at a cost of $2195.39. 

The programme and all committees for township exer- 
cises are arranged for the annual institute the last week 
of March each year. For the first four years the county 
superintendent attended every township exercise, being out 
sixteen evenings in June. During June, 1905, the teachers, 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



III 



with great credit to themselves, assumed full control, and the 
county superintendent attended only one township exercise. 
The aim of the traveling libraries is twofold : first, to 
furnish aids for carrying out the regular work of the school ; 
hence the presence of supplementary readers, works on 
geography, history, etc.; second, to take to the country 
school much of the valuable literature that is not found in 
the ordinary school library. A better idea of the character 
of the books will be had if the contents of two boxes are 
given (see Fig. 64). The small boxes are for the one-room 
country schools and the large ones for the graded schools. 
There are sixty-four boxes for one hundred and six country 
schools and nine boxes for the nine graded schools, all out- 
side the city of Rockford. The contents of box 50 are as 
follows : 



6 Cyr's Second Reader. 

5 Cyr's Fourth Reader. 

1 White's Court of Boyville. 

1 Wilson's Division and Reunion. 

1 Montgomery's Leading Facts 
of American History. 

1 Under Sunny Skies (Youth's 
Companion Series). 

1 Scudder's George Washington. 

1 Hart's Colonial Children. 

1 Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales. 

1 Chase's Birdland. 

1 Carroll's Around the World. 

1 Kingsley's Four American Ex- 
plorers. 

1 Werner's Primer. 

1 Pratt's America's Story for 
America's Children. 

1 Bolton's Poor Boys Who Be- 
came Famous. 



1 Beal's Seed Dispersal. 

1 Eckstrom's The Bird Book. 

1 Miller's Second Book of Birds. 

1 Lights to Literature (Reader). 

1 Guerber's Story of the Eng- 
lish. 

1 Barnes's For King or Country. 

1 Long's Secrets of the Woods. 

1 Arnold's Primer. 

1 Brooks's True Story of George 
Washington. 

1 Rorer's Good Cooking. 

1 Clark's How to Teach Read- 
ing. 

1 Wade's Our Little Indian 
Cousin. 

1 McMurry's Robinson Crusoe. 

1 Irish's American and British 
Authors. 

1 Kupper's Stories of Long Ago. 



I 12 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The boxes for country schools are in groups of threes 
for circuits comprising- six school districts. There are dif- 
ferent books in each box of a circuit, though there are dupli- 
cates in the sixty-four boxes. For example, there are twenty 
copies of Thwaite's The Colonies and one hundred and sixty- 
four of Cyr's First Readers scattered among the boxes. But 
the plan of travel is such that it will be eighteen years 
before the same three boxes circulate among: the same six 




Fig. 64. Traveling Libraries for Country Schools : Plan of Disinfection 



schools. If boxes 39, 40, and 58 are in Circuit B, com- 
prising districts 24, 34, 22, 20, 21, and 23 for the school 
year 1904-1905, these three boxes are dropped to Circuit C 
for 1 905- 1 906 and three boxes from Circuit S are advanced 
to Circuit B, and so on for eighteen years. Beginning with 
September, 1905, each box remains two months in each 
school. At the beginning of each school year the boxes 
are sent out by trolley lines, railway express, and in the 



county superintendent's bus 



In June they return to 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



"3 



the county superintendent's office in the same way, where 
the boxes are checked up, books repaired and fumigated, and 
new books added. Every precaution is taken during the 
school year to guard against contagious diseases. If books 
are in a family where children are sick with scarlet fever, 
the teacher has instructions to require those books to be 
burned, and not to allow their return to the box in the school- 
house. The children are urged to take books home with 
them while a box is in the district, so that the parents may 
become acquainted with good reading matter for children. 

The large boxes for the graded schools each contain 
more books, of course. Box 5 contains the following : 

12 Cyr's Fourth Reader. 
1 Carroll's Around the World. 
1 Parkman's Conspiracy of Pon 



tiac (Vols. I and II). 

1 Parkman's Count Frontenac, 
etc. 

1 Blanchan's How to Attract 
Birds. 

1 Coffin's Boys of ''yG. 

r Thompson's My Winter Gar- 
den. 

1 Clark's How to Teach Read- 
ing. 

1 Holder's Animal Life. 

1 Greene's King Arthur and his 
Court. 

1 Baldwin's Discovery of the 
Old Northwest. 

1 Miller's First Book of Birds. 

1 Plympton's Flower of the Wil- 
derness. 

1 Winship's Great American 
Educators. 

1 Drake's Making of New Eng- 
land. 



1 Tarr and McMurry's North 

America. 
1 Drysdale's The Treasury Club. 
1 Grinnell's Neighbors of the 

Field and Air. 
1 Fiske's History of the United 

States. 
1 Eggleston's The Graysons : a 

Story of Abraham Lincoln. 
1 Fisher's The Colonial Era. 
1 Seton's Krag and Johnny Bear. 
1 Miller's The Second Book of 

Birds. 
1 Barbour's For the Honor of the 

School. 
1 Stevenson's Child's Garden of 

Verse. 
1 Wilson's Division and Reunion. 
1 Needham's Outdoor Studies. 
1 Andrews's Seven Little Sisters, 

etc. 
1 Baldwin's Old Stories of the 

East. 
1 Menefee's Old Stories from the 

Masters. 



ii4 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



i Stoddard's Crowded Out o'Cro- 
field. 

i Blanch an's Nature's Garden. 

i The World's Work, November, 
1902, to April, 1903. 

1 London's Call of the Wild. - 

1 Butler's Meaning of Education. 

1 Riis's Making of an American. 

1 Brooks's Century Book of 
American Colonies. 

1 Deming's Indian Child Life. 

1 Chenery's As the Twig is Bent. 

1 Zollinger's Widow O'Galla- 
gher's Boys. 

1 Arnold's Waymarks for Teach- 
ers. 

1 Beard's American Girl's Handy 
Book. 

1 Beard's King and his Wonder- 
ful Castle. 

1 Allen's Navy Blue. 

1 Robinson's Improvement of 
Towns and Cities. 

1 True's The Iron Star. 

1 Johnson's World's Discoverers. 

1 Eastman's Indian Boyhood. 

1 Henderson's Social Spirit in 
America. 



1 Du Bois's Point of Contact in 
Teaching. 

1 Burroughs's Pepacton. 

1 Hancock's Life at West Point. 

1 Stephens's Phelps and his 
Teachers. 

1 Knapp's Story of the Philip- 
pines. 

1 Barbour's Captain of the Crew. 

1 Smith's Life in Asia. 

1 Wade's Little Cuban Cousin. 

1 Eckstrom's The Bird Book. 

1 Smith's Under the Cactus Flag. 

1 Brigham's Geographic Influ- 
ences. 

1 George's Little Journeys to 
Cuba. 

1 Parkman's The Oregon Trail. 

1 Chautauquan, January, Febru- 
ary, March, 1904 (bound vol.). 

1 The World's Work, January, 
February, March, 1904 
(bound vol.). 

1 Country Life in America, Janu- 
ary, February, March, 1904 
(bound vol.). 

1 Holton and Rollins's Industrial 
Work in Public Schools. 



Some of the above books are suitable for high-school pupils 
in villages, and some are for professional reading for teachers 
to enable them to do the work outlined by the county super- 
intendent for the current year. The township library lists of 
books issued annually by the state superintendent of Wis- 
consin for the past six years have been of invaluable assist- 
ance in the selection of books for the traveling libraries. 

A school library, whether traveling or stationary, will be 
of little value unless teachers make right use of it. Indeed, 
it may do much harm. The average teacher in the country 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



115 



schools has much yet to learn about the use of the school 
library. They are not to be blamed, for they have never 
had books to work with or any opportunity to learn how to 
use them. The teachers need to be shown how to use books. 
For six years we have had a library hour at the annual 
teachers' institute the last week of March. Several hun- 
dred volumes of books were generously loaned us by the 
Rockford Public Library, and an hour was set apart each 
day for reading. For the last two years the county super- 
intendent conducted the daily exercise on library work. 
The following topics were discussed : 

1. Value of different kinds of books. 

2. The teacher and the care of books. 

3. Are children interested in reading? If not, how to interest them. 

4. How shall the teacher teach children to read ? 

5. Relation of library reading to school work. 

6. How to become acquainted with books. 

7. What does the teacher need to do to make better use of the 
library and to direct children ? 

8. Library reading in the district schools. When ? Why ? How ? 

9. Children's reports on books read. 

10. Statements by teachers of work done the past year with 
library books in school. 

11. Reports and discussions of work assigned various teachers by 
the county superintendent during institute week. 

For the last topic the following outline was printed for 
each teacher as a guide when reading a book : 

1. Kind of literature ? 

2. Suitable for what grade to read? 

3. May be read to what grade ? 

4. General theme of the book ? 

5. Why is the book interesting to children? 

6. What in the books is valuable for the child as literature ? 

7. Give a general report of the contents. 



Il6 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

A recent library number of the Outlook says : 

The teacher must be a constant and interested reader of the books 
he is demanding his pupils to read. He must know and enjoy his 
Robinson Crusoe and Alice in Wonderland, his Being a Boy and 
Little Women. His knowledge of juvenile literature should not be 
merely a shadowy reminiscence. The teacher who has ceased to read 
the grade of books which make a normal appeal to the immature 
minds of his pupils is beginning to lose his usefulness ; for he owes 
it to his students not merely to tell them the titles of the books to 
read, but to stimulate them and sympathize with them from his own 
vital interest. Many a teacher. has been kept fresh for his profes- 
sional work by his reading of children's books. 

Libraries in country schools should aid in cultivating a 
taste for good reading and should supply material for sup- 
plementary study in regular school work. But what is the 
use of all the energy and money expended in putting libraries 
into country schools if the right use is not made of the 
books ? They should not be thrown about over the room 
or be tumbled promiscuously into the library case. Every 
school should have a library case if possible. I have seen 
books well taken care of in a common dry-goods box, with 
shelves and curtains arranged by the teacher. Such an 
arrangement is infinitely better than nothing, and the cost 
is nominal. The best library educational work that I ever 
saw was in a district school, where a good library case had 
been secured by the teacher and children as a premium 
for selling soap. The books were nicely arranged on the 
shelves by grades, and a pupil was appointed librarian for 
two weeks. It was that pupil's business for that period 
to see that the books were kept in good order and in their 
proper places. At the end of two weeks some other pupil 
was appointed librarian. Thus the children were made re- 
sponsible, and they were receiving valuable training in the 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 117 

care of books. Here was positive direction for good results, 
instead of the negative "Don't misuse books," coming as 
a command from the teacher. And the principle is funda- 
mental all through school work. Its successful application 
depends upon the tact and patience of the teacher. 

In addition to instructing teachers how to make use of 
books and how to become acquainted with books suitable 
for children during the annual institute, another important 
phase of library work has been going on at the same time. 
Mention has been made of this feature in Chapter V, where 
a course in art reading was used in connection with picture 
study. For six years books from the Rockford Public Li- 
brary have been used at the annual institute to carry out 
courses of 'instruction in other subjects, such as nature study, 
pedagogy, and United States history. The instructor in 
those subjects puts the references on the blackboard, and 
the student teachers have one hour each day to read them. 

I shall not attempt to say what subject is most poorly 
taught in the country school. Enough to say that the 
teaching of United States history can be improved. This 
is doubtless true of other subjects. It is an easy and 
pleasant task to contemplate an ideal course in United 
States history, to be taught by a teacher who knows his- 
tory, — a college graduate supplied with a number of library 
books and maps for class-room work. But to say the most 
helpful thing is not an easy task for a teacher who does 
not know history, who is not even a high-school graduate, 
whose school district has not a single library book or a 
wall map of the United States, and whose pupils are sup- 
plied with text-books a quarter of a century old. Every 
teacher should pursue a course of reading in United States 
history. 



Ii8 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The following list, prepared by a noted author of school 
histories, is offered as containing a small number of what 
he regards as the most important and useful books for 
study and reference, most or all of which can be found in 
any good library : 

A Short List of Books on American History 

Bibliography 

Charming and Hart's Guide to the Study of American History 
(1492-1865). 

Historical Geography and Maps 

Hart's Epoch Maps of the United States (no text). 
MacCoun's Historical Geography of the United States (revised 
edition). 

General Histories 

Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, 8 vols, (to 1887, but net 

including the period of the Civil War). 
Bancroft's United States, 6 vols, (revised edition) (to 17S9). 
Bryant and Gay's United States, 5 vols, (revised edition) (to 1S96). 
Higginson's Larger History of the LJiiited States (to 1903). 
Hart's Epochs of American History, 3 vols. (1492-1889). The best 

single work there is. 
McMaster's United States, 4 vols. (1784-1820). 

Works of Reference 
Harper's Book of Facts. 

Larned's History for Ready Reference, 5 vols. 
Hart's Source Book of American History. 
Macdonald's Select Documents of United States History. 
Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, 4 vols. 
Wright's Industrial Evolution of the United States. 
Johnston's American Politics. 

Lossing's Cyclopaedia of United States History (revised edition). 
Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols, (revised edition). 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES I 19 

Boynton's School Civics. 

Scudder's American Commonwealths (a series of volumes giving the 

histories of the states, by eminent writers). 
Sparks's American Biography, 25 vols. 

Morse's American Statesmen (a series of volumes by able writers). 
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 6 vols. 

I. Period of Discovery (1492-1521) 
Fiske's North America, 2 vols. 

II. Period of Exploration and Spanish Colonization of 
America (1509-1587) 

Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World. 
Cooke's Virginia. 1 

III. Period of Permanent English and French Settlements 
(1607-1763) 

Fiske's The Beginnings of New England. 

Parkman's The Discovery of the Great West. 2 

Drake's Making of the Great West. 

Biography. See Sparks's American Biography for Lives of Nathan- 
iel Bacon, Daniel Boone, Lord Baltimore (Calvert), Jonathan 
Edwards, John Eliot, Patrick Henry, Anne Hutchinson, John 
Ledyard, Cotton Mather, Governor Oglethorpe, James Otis, 
Sir W. Phips, William Penn, Count Rumford (Benjamin Thomp- 
son), Captain John Smith, Roger Williams, Governor Winthrop : 
Bigelow's Benjamin Franklin, 3 vols.; Montgomery and Trent's 
Franklin's Autobiography. 

IV. The Revolution and the Constitution (1 763-1 789) 

Lodge's American Revolution, 2 vols. 

Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, 2 vols. 

Fiske's American Revolution, 2 vols. 

Scudder's America One Hundred Years Ago. 

1 In Scudder's American Commonwealth Series. 

2 This work deals, more or less directly, with our relations with the 
French and the Indians in the colonial period. 



120 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Fiske's Critical Period in American History. 

Biography. Parker's Historic Americans, Bigelow's Franklin, 3 vols., 
Hosmer's Samuel Adams, 1 Morse's John Adams, 1 Greene's General 
Greene, 2 vols., Lodge's Washington, 2vols., 1 Fiske'-s Irving's Wash- 
ington and his Country, Sparks's American Biography, Lodge's 
Hamilton, 1 Gay's Madison, 1 Roosevelt's Gouverneur Morris. 1 

V. The Union. National Development (17S9-1861) 

Rhodes's United States, 3 vols. (1 850-1861). 

Lossing's Field Book of the War of 18 12. 

Johnston's American Orations, 4 vols. 

Webster's Great Speeches (Whipple's edition). 

Ouincy's Figures of the Past. 

Biography. See in Morse's American Statesmen Series, the Lives of 
John Adams, J. O. Adams, Benton, Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Washington, and Webster ; in 
Sparks's American Biography, the Lives of Fulton and Rumford ; 
Redpath's John Brown, Johnson's Garrison, Prime's Morse, Rice's 
Morton, Abbott's Kit Carson, Upham's Fremont, Parton's Famous 
Americans, Mrs. Stowe's Men of our Times, Hunt's American 
Merchants, Lodge and Roosevelt's Hero Tales from American 
History. 

VI. The Period of the Civil War (1861-1865) 

Greeley's American Conflict, 2 vols. 

Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War. 

McPherson's Political History of the Rebellion. 

Biography. Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln, Holland's Lincoln, 
Herndon's Lincoln, 3 vols., Thayer's Lincoln, Carpenter's Six 
Months in the White House, McClellan's Own Story, Roman's 
Beauregard, 2 vols., Badeau's U. S. Grant, 3 vols., Grant's Personal 
Memoirs, 2 vols., Sherman's Memoirs, 2 vols., Sheridan's Memoirs, 
2vols., Farragut's Life of Farragut, Schuckers's Life of S. P. Chase, 
Cooke's Robert E. Lee, Cooke's "Stonewall" Jackson. Johnston 
and Browne's Life of Alexander H. Stephens, Alfriend's Life of 
Jefferson Davis, Pollard's Life of Jefferson Davis. 

1 In Morse's American Statesmen Series. 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 12 I 

VII. Reconstruction. The New Nation (1865 to the Present 

Time) 

Andrews's Last Quarter of a Century (187 5-1 895). 
Andrews's United States at the Present Time (1904), 1 vol. 
Wilson's Lives of the Presidents (17S9-1S93). 
Johnston's American Politics. 
Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols. 

The study of United States history received much atten- 
tion at the last annual meeting of our county institute. 
The Rockford Public Library loaned the institute a large 
assortment of works on history, — more than a hundred 
and twenty-five volumes, — suitable for a study of the 
development of the spirit of nationality. Mace's Method 
in History \ had been used in local institute work in various 
centers in the county during the months previous to the 
annual institute. 

As to the objects and results of the use of books on United 
States history in connection with instruction in that subject 
at the annual teachers' institute, Principal B. D. Parker 
of the Rockford Hio-h School, who was institute instructor, 
says in an article in ScJiool and Home Education : 

The main objects were (1) to endeavor to bring to the minds of 
the teachers of the county a realization of the wealth of material 
upon the history of our country, and, by leading them out of the 
brief text-book to the broader fields, to inspire them with the desire 
to know and to teach real history rather than outlines, dates, and 
memory devices ; (2) that the teachers might get a start in a small 
way toward seeing our history as a history of the growth of ideas, 
instead of groups of events bound together by nothing but similarity 
in time ; (3) to provide a scheme of instruction which should appeal 
to the one who had had little opportunity for historical study, be 
interesting to him who had begun to see the possibilities ahead, and 
give opportunity to the more advanced student teacher to revel in 
that which he loved. (4) These objects were to be gained not 



122 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



through lengthy discourses by the instructor, but from contact with 
the great historical writers of the world. The duty of the instructor 
was simply to act as the introduction committee and then to keep out 
of the way and allow the newly formed friendships to grow. 

Of the results Mr. Parker says : 

The first result was the enthusiasm and earnestness with which the 
teachers took up the work. The spirit shown by them was an inspi- 
ration. Each day from the time thev entered the library room till 




Fig. 65. The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors 



the close of that period their attitude was one of work. The " Let us 
have a good time" feeling which mars some institutes had no place. 
A good time was had, but it was because of good work being done. 
The college graduate and the teacher from the country school were 
there, and each found something to his liking. 

Under the new unification system in New York State 
the state library and the library school have been placed 
in charge of the Department of Education. The first annual 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 1 23 

report under the new organization, issued by Commissioner 
Draper, states that "it is fundamental that there should be 
in every class room a library or collection of at least a few 
good books suited to the intelligence and intellectual devel- 
opment of the children in that room." 

There are 1,227,317 volumes in the elementary school 
libraries, an increase of 246,063 volumes for the year 1904. 
The state appropriates $55,000 annually for libraries, dis- 
tributed among districts in proportion to money raised by 
the districts and under regulations established by the De- 
partment of Education. The following table is of interest: 

Number of common-school districts sharing in fund . . . 1206 

Number of union districts sharing in fund 1S9 

Number of cities sharing in fund 39 

Amount granted to common-school districts .... $10,503.48 

Amount granted to union districts 4,236.29 

Amount granted*to cities 30,649.13 

Number of books bought by districts 97,668 

Number of books bought by cities 225,288 

The school-library section added to the unification law of 
1904 is designed to increase the extent and effectiveness 
of libraries for schools. The school library is the only 
library for many communities, and is a means of creating 
sentiment for new public libraries. One instance of this is 
where the traveling school library in the Seward Consoli- 
dated School in Illinois has led to the organization of the 
Seward Public Library of several hundred volumes. This 
fund was raised by private subscription, and the books 
were placed in the library room of the school building. 

In New York each of the eleven thousand school districts 
is urged to send its list of books to the Library Bureau 
of the Department of Education, and every encouragement 
is given by the bureau to help along the library sentiment 



124 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



all over the state. The teachers' library of six thousand 
volumes has been combined with the traveling libraries, and 
thus good pedagogical books go out to the teachers in the 
country schools as well as in other schools. 

The traveling libraries of New York began in 1892 with 
a half-dozen libraries as an experiment. Now there are one 
thousand traveling libraries, with a total of 6/,/^ books, 
which are sent to all parts of the state. They have ceased to 
be an experiment, and the "plan has been copied by almost 
every state in the Union, and is accepted as a regular form of 
library work yielding the largest returns compared to its cost." 

The Library Bureau is also assisting in art education in 
New York State. There are traveling art exhibits of 1586 
large pictures of "the finest subjects and the best edition"; 
also 21,069 mounted photographs. All these are loaned to 
libraries, schools, etc., for six months at a time, to be hung 
on the walls " with proper labels and notes to increase their 
educational value." And not the least of the great work 
done by the Library Bureau is the loaning of 24,458 lantern 
slides, together with the lanterns, screens, and attachments 
for oil, oxyhydrogen, acetylene, or electric light. The report 
of the bureau says : 

The growing demand is less significant than the general accept- 
ance by schools, libraries, and clubs of pictures as having a proper 
place beside books as a great factor in educational work. The library 
has been a pioneer in broadening this field, and its experience and 
methods are widely utilized by others. 

Besides all the above the bureau sends out " house 
libraries." These are libraries of ten volumes each, loaned 
to any home for three months for a fee of one dollar to cover 
transportation both ways. This is the "plan for extending 
through traveling libraries the privileges of the state library 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES I 25 

to the rural population living too far from the nearest public 
library to make its contents conveniently available." These 
libraries are suited to the needs of the country home, and 
as far as practicable are made up from lists submitted by 
the home wishing one of the house libraries. 

The state of Massachusetts publishes no specific litera- 
ture on the improvement of the country school as such. 
In that state the district or town system of expert supervision 
is relied upon to raise the standard of the country schools. 

The report of the Free Public Library Commission of 
Massachusetts for 1905 is crowded with data showing how 
the public library is aiding the work of the public schools. 
Weymouth reports that twenty-five to thirty books each "are 
now sent every two months to seven distant schools, whose 
pupils otherwise would receive little help from the public 
library." It is fair to presume that these " distant schools " 
are one-room country schools. Many cities report assist- 
ance rendered schools, presumably city schools, in the way of 
traveling libraries, special lists for children, special teachers' 
cards, and the like. As was said above, since there is no 
special literature published by the state on the country 
school, it is hard for one not acquainted with the town sys- 
tem of Massachusetts to tell accurately from the report of 
the Free Public Library Commission what is done for the 
country school as distinguished from the village or city school. 
This book concerns itself principally with the country 
school, as its title, Among Country Schools, would indicate. 

Mention must be made of the work of the Women's 
Education Association in the way of increasing the library 
interests of Massachusetts. It now has fifty traveling 
libraries containing 14 17 volumes, with libraries on such 
special subjects as Venice, Florence, Shakespeare, English 



126 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

architecture, Rome, Italian art, Egypt, French art, Spanish 
art, and religion. The number of localities receiving benefit 
from these traveling libraries is forty-nine, probably almost 
all being country localities too far removed from some 
public library situated in a city. Besides these collections 
of books the association has twenty-four sets of pictures 
which have been loaned for one hundred and forty-nine 
exhibitions at one hundred and four different places. 

State Superintendent Miller of West Virginia writes of 
the work in that state regarding the effort to supply the 
country school with libraries : 

For some years school libraries in the towns and cities of West 
Virginia have been growing quite rapidly, but not until recently has 
much attention been given to the question of furnishing good litera- 
ture to the pupils in country schools. Interest in this work has 
increased, however, and on last Library Day, which, in 1905, was 
observed on the second Friday in December, instead of the first as 
heretofore, it is believed that about fifty thousand volumes were added 
to the school libraries of country districts alone. This brings the 
number of books within reach of the pupils in the district schools 
up to about one hundred and forty thousand. In this reckoning no 
account is taken of high-school, city, or public libraries. 

Various methods were used by which to raise funds for the pur- 
chase of books. In many places an admittance fee was charged to a 
little entertainment proposed for the occasion ; in other communities 
contributions of money and books were received, while, still further, 
boards of education duplicated the amount that was raised by the 
school. One country school reports one hundred and one dollars as 
the result of its own effort for books, while another in a remote 
interior section of the state raised fifty-nine dollars. Of course, in 
some of the towns and thickly settled communities the receipts were 
much larger. A very encouraging feature of the work is the fact that 
not only are pupils interested in the library effort, but the citizens are 
contributing liberally to it and heartily aiding the movement that will 
give our youth a better class of literature. 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES 127 

In the selection of books the aim has been, even with a small 
collection, to choose books suited to the needs and comprehension 
of pupils in the different grades. Neither are the young men and 
women out of school nor the fathers and mothers at home forgotten. 
The vocations of the people are also considered. For instance, books 
on elementary agriculture, fruit growing, poultry raising, etc., have 
been chosen for different sections where the people were especially 
interested in these industries. Not only are books obtained for the 
libraries, but good periodicals as well, especial emphasis being placed 
upon good illustrated magazines. While in many districts at first the 
smaller and cheaper books must necessarily be purchased, we feel 
that this is a good beginning, if the books are carefully selected, and 
that when the reading habit is once formed in a community the inter- 
est will increase, and books of a more valuable make-up and possibly 
of a higher literary character will replace those first introduced. 

Since June 30, 1902, two hundred and sixty-seven 
country-school libraries have been established in North 
Carolina. These libraries contain one hundred thousand 
volumes and are valued at $40,000. The Woman's Associ- 
ation for the Betterment of Public Schoolhouses in North 
Carolina has had a great part in this work. The story of 
the work of this association is told in another chapter. 

The legislature of North Carolina has passed an act to 
aid the country-school libraries. It provides that where the 
patrons and friends of a country school raise ten dollars for 
a library the state will give a like amount. Provision for this 
is by appropriation of the County Board of Education, which 
also looks after the selection of the books and their care 
after purchase. In one year after the passage of the act 
three hundred and fifty-five libraries were established in 
seventy-eight of the ninety-six counties of the state, at an 
expenditure of $3550 by the state and $7100 by the coun- 
ties and local communities, making a total expenditure of 
$10,650. 



128 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

A recent bulletin issued by the Southern Education 
Board gives an account of the establishment of country - 
school libraries in one county in Tennessee. This but illus- 
trates the new day coming for the country child all over 
the South land. The count)- referred to is Polk County, 
where in one year, as the result oi aggressive work of the 
county superintendent, thirty-nine country-school libraries 
were established at a total cost of $1857.50, to be paid in 
three annual installments. 

In 1903 there were sixty-nine traveling libraries in 
Tennessee under the control of the Women's Federation. 
The South Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs has 
sixty-four traveling libraries which circulate in nearly every 
county of the state, the railroads furnishing free transporta- 
tion. The Texas Federation has fifty-seven traveling libra- 
ries which are sent to the country schools of that state. 



CHAPTER VII 

A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 

" Country-school extension work " is perhaps a new term, 
but some way should be devised to reach the great number 
of country boys and girls who for various reasons quit the 
district school when they are fifteen or sixteen years old 
and do not go to a city or village high school. Here is one 
strong argument for the consolidated school with its high- 
school course of at least two years. It is quite difficult for 
many adults on the farm, and even for those living in cities, 
to realize the changes that have come into the country 
school with reference to attendance. Invariably they think 
of the old-fashioned country school, with an attendance of 
seventy or eighty pupils, many of them being boys and 
girls over eighteen years of age. Large classes were the 
rule, and the school was generally taught by a strong man, 
morally, intellectually, and perhaps physically. 

In another chapter will be found data with reference to 
the small country school in various states. It is sufficient 
to state here that about one half of the one hundred and 
six one-room country schools of Winnebago County for the 
year ending June 30, 1905, had a total enrollment of fifteen 
pupils or less. I was interested to know how many boys 
and girls over fourteen years of age were enrolled in those 
one hundred and six one-room country schools. For the 
month of December, 1904, the teachers reported the exact 
number. This month was taken, for if the big boys and 

129 



130 AMONci COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

girls arc in school at all during the year, it is in December 

after the corn husking is finished. 

The number of boys over fourteen years old was re- 
ported to be one hundred and sixty-three, or an average 

of one and one half to each country school. The number of 
girls was one hundred and twenty-two in the same number 
of schools, or Lin average of one and one sixth. A consid- 
erable number of the schools have no large pupils, and so 
the teaching oi agriculture in the small school will not 
reach the class of pupils it should reach. Where are the big- 
boys and girls ? State Superintendent Riggs of Iowa reports 
that there are ten thousand country children of that state 
paying tuition to attend city schools. Why is this? 

One object, then, oi the organization of the Winnebago 
County Farmer Boys' Experiment Club was to try to inter- 
est the big boys in the work of the Illinois College of Agri- 
culture and the Experiment Station. The membership is 
not limited to boys who have quit the district school, but 
includes any boy who wishes to join, whether in school or 
out oi school. It is quite likely that there are many coun- 
ties in Illinois and other states where the old-time country 
school obtains, with twenty or thirty large pupils in attend- 
ance for at least five months of the year, and all taught 
by a well-trained normal graduate receiving from sixty-five 
to eighty-five dollars per month. Pupils in such schools do 
not need to go to city schools for an education; but such 
schools with such teachers are not found in the country 
districts oi Winnebago County or in many other counties, 
if the statistics oi various state superintendents report the 
actual condition of things. However that may be, I felt 
it my duty to know the exact situation in my own county 
and then try to better the educational opportunities for the 
country children under mv charge. 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



13 



Our Boys' Experiment Club was organized in the office 
of the County Superintendent of Schools at Rockford on 
February 22, 1902, the day following the close of the state 
farmers' institute, which was held at Rockford that year. 
The charter members of the club number thirty-seven 
boys, who met in my office that morning and listened to 
brief talks by Professor Shamel of the Illinois College of 





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* p .f# .*, ^t*!t 



Fig. 66. Some Prize Winners, Members of the Winnebago County 
Farmer Boys' Experiment Club 



Agriculture and Superintendent Fred Rankin of the Agri- 
cultural College extension work. The club is growing and 
now numbers five hundred boys between nine and twenty- 
one years of age. The expectation is to have an increase 
in numbers and interest. 

The machinery of this organization is very simple. So 
far there is no elaborate constitution and by-laws to tell 
the boys why they are boys and what boys are for. The 
county superintendent has a list of them, with the post- 
office address of each. Superintendent Fred Rankin of the 



132 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Agricultural College extension work has a duplicate list, 
and from each office go circulars, bulletins, and literature 
of various kinds, the main object being to keep in touch 
with the boys, and to interest them more deeply in the 
beauty of country life and the worth, dignity, and scientific 
advancement in agriculture. Last year about four hundred 

young men from the 
various counties of 
Illinois were enrolled 
in the College of 
Agriculture in con- 
nection with the 
University of Illinois 
at Urbana. This is 
something of which 
to be proud. But 
they were only four 
hundred out of the 
many thousands of 
bright boys who 
never will attend the 
College of Agricul- 
ture. A boys' club 
with the educational 
excursion is one way 
of giving help and inspiration to the thousands of boys 
who cannot get an education at an agricultural college or 
anywhere else. 

The teacher in the country school can be a very impor- 
tant factor in this country-school extension work. The 
bulletins of the College of Agriculture and of the Experi- 
ment Station should be on the reading table or in the 




Fig. 67. A Prize Winner, Eleven Years Old 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



33 



library of every country school. There are many ways of 
interesting the older pupils of the district in them, if the 
teacher herself is interested. Suggestions as to how this 
may be done, and as to 
the value of experimen- 
tal and observation work, 
will appear throughout 
the next few chapters. 

The work of the boys 
since the organization of 
the club has been as fol- 
lows : in 1902, testing 
vitality of various seeds, 
investigations with refer- 
ence to smut in oats, ex- 
perimenting with sugar 
beets, and growing corn 
from seed furnished by 
officers of the Winnebago 
County Institute; in 
1903, growing high-bred 
corn from seed furnished 
by the directors of the 
Illinois State Farmers' 
Institute at Springfield ; 
in 1904, the same work 
as in 1903 ; in 1905, 
growing high-bred corn 

from seed furnished by officers of the Winnebago County 
Institute, and experiments with sugar beets from seed 
furnished by the Rock County Sugar Beet Company, 
Janesville, Wisconsin. 




Fig. 68. A Prize Winner, Twelve 
Years Old 



134 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The first year, 1902, the enrollment was not large, the 
experimental work being carried on by only a few boys ; but 
it was a beginning. The boys tested various kinds of seeds, 
planting corn and noting growth. Professor Shamel sent 
each charter member an ear of high-bred corn. In making 
investigations with reference to smut in oats, each boy was 
directed to go into four different fields and make three dif- 
ferent counts in the same field by dropping a barrel hoop 
over as many stalks of grain as the hoop might inclose, and 
then counting the number of sound heads and also the 
heads showing smut. The percentage of smut was deter- 
mined by the boys. This was practical arithmetic, just as 
valuable educational material as calculating the percentage 
of the number of inhabitants of a great city who live in 
tenement houses. Two boys reported as follows : 

First Field 

Average Number Average Number Average 
Heads in Hoop Heads of Smut per cent Smut 

First boy 106 4 3 

Second boy 157 5 3 

Second Field 

First boy 203 44 23 

Second boy 206 46 21 

Third Field 

First boy 213 27 13 

Second boy 181 iS 10 

Fourth Field 

First boy 219 12 5 

Second boy 240 13 5 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



135 



The Experiment Station at Urbana estimates two dollars 
per acre as the loss from smut to the farmers of Illinois. 
Two of the fields shown above will go far beyond that. 
One owner had never heard of treatment of oat seed before 
sowing to destroy smut, although the subject was fully dis- 
cussed at the local farmers' institute. Such work will cause 
more boys to attend the farmers' institute. 

The sugar-beet experiment for 1 902 was under the direc- 
tion of the Experiment Station at Urbana, and was for the 
purpose of seeing whether sugar beets can be grown with 




Fig. 69. With High-Bred Corn 

profit in Illinois. Only a few boys planted seed that year. 
For the year 1905 seventy-one boys volunteered to grow 
sugar beets, representing thirty-three acres. The seed, five 
hundred and twenty-five pounds, was furnished free by the 
Rock County Sugar Beet Company of Janesville, Wisconsin. 
The complete returns of this experimental work showed 
that thirty-eight boys stayed in to the end, and the total 
shipment of the beets raised by these boys was one hun- 
dred and twenty-eight tons net factory weight. For these 
beets the boys received $590.77, about fifteen dollars per 



136 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



boy on an average. The experiment demonstrated that the 
soil of Winnebago County is suitable for raising sugar beets ; 
it also showed the value of intensive methods of agricul- 
ture. The largest yield was obtained from one acre of 
ground; it amounted to nearly eighteen tons, and the two 
boys received $71.19 for their work. Two other boys had 

two acres and re- 
ceived the same 
amount. This illus- 
trates the value of 
good soil and culti- 
vation. A boy and 
his sister got $14.58 
for beets raised on 
a plot of ground 
50 feet by 275 feet. 
This last furnishes 
material for practi- 
cal arithmetic. At 
this rate how much 
could be raised on 
one acre, etc. ? 

The Agricultural 
College Extension 
Department, under the direction of Superintendent Rankin, 
at my request, in March, 1905, issued a very complete bul- 
letin on " Some Facts about Sugar Beets and how to Grow 
Them." This was mailed to every member of the club. 
Here is illustrated how the College of Agriculture and 
the country school can do valuable work. 

The bulletin gives very clear, simple directions to the 
boys about the soil and its preparation for beets, seeding, 




v 



Fig. 70. With High-Bred Corn 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



137 



cultivation, bunching and thinning, harvesting, etc. The 
following quotation from the bulletin shows its high edu- 
cational character : 



The Sugar Beet a Factor in American Agriculture 

Sugar beets need care. Culture is everything ; in fact, more atten- 
tion is required than for most crops, but they pay double or treble in 
return. The haphazard methods so often practiced in corn culture 
would prove disastrous in the care of beets. Beet culture means a 
higher grade of farming, — a more intensive agriculture. Through 













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H 


SS 


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?T0> 










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7 v.. 






*&j&*YdS? 




■Ki^Sa^'it 



Fig. 71. A Sugar-Beet Grower 1 

the most scientific methods of plant breeding the sugar in the beet 
has been increased from six to eighteen and twenty per cent in less 
than one hundred years. The sugar beet is a " thoroughbred," and, 
like a highly bred animal, will degenerate under unfavorable condi- 
tions. Two thirds of the sugar we consume comes from the sugar 
beet. The consumption of sugar in America is on the increase; each 
man, woman, and child uses about eighty-five pounds of sugar a year. 
It requires over $50,000 daily to pay for the sugar consumed in Illinois, 
and it takes the value of the average oat crop of the United States to 
pay our annual sugar bill. An average acre of sugar beets produces 
from fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds of sugar. 



1 This member of the club with his brother has six acres of beets (1905), 
with which they hope to pay high-school and college expenses. 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



A Personal Talk on Sugar Beets 

By Fred H. Rankin, Superintendent of the Agricultural College 
Extension Department, Urbana, Illinois 

The writer was recently associated for two years in the care of over 
four hundred acres in sugar beets in central Illinois, and from this 
practical experience believes that the difference between thorough, 
intensive, and careful farming, from the beginning of the plowing to 
the end of the harvest, and slipshod, half-hearted work, is emphasized 
more in successful beet culture than in that of any other crop. 

This circular was prepared especially for the Farmer Boys' Experi- 
ment Club of Winnebago County, Illinois, and others who live near 




Fig. 72. Sugar-Keet Growers 1 

enough to find a market for their beets at the Wisconsin sugar-beet 
factories, but we urge other young people to grow some beets or other 
roots for their live stock; it will pay you well for your time. Your 
milch cows and hogs will enjoy this variety in their feed and be much 
better for it, just as you enjoy a variety of winter vegetables. The 
growing of beets will not only help the cow and the pig but will help 
the boy. 

Beet seed plus rich soil, plus moisture, plus good culture, plus a 
thinking boy equals sugar beets. Try a few rods square or a quarter 
of an acre in beets, following carefully the directions in this circular, 
and, my word for it, you will find it pays. You will be awakened to a 

1 These two boys and two older brothers have one acre of sugar beets. 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 139 

new appreciation of the value of fertility in the soil. You will find 
that it is something more than " just dirt." You will go to studying 
the soils on different parts of the farm. You will want to get better 
acquainted with the soil. You will discuss it with those who can tell 
you how the different soils were made. You will discuss it at your club 
meetings. You will want to read Experiment Station bulletins and to 
come here to the Agricultural College, where they teach much that 
is known about soils, crop rotation, growing of corn, clover, etc. Then 
you will want to know how to feed these crops to your live stock to 
the best advantage, and you will want to learn more about judging the 
market grades and classes of live stock. In short, you will be studying 
agriculture, and be recognized as a leader in better agricultural methods. 

Perhaps all the boys who receive this circular may not feel like 
undertaking to raise beets. Very well ; some other crop can be tried, — 
a patch of potatoes, a piece of corn, or some garden vegetables. But 
do not be satisfied with an average crop. Practice some of the careful 
intensive methods of farming that the successful sugar-beet growers 
follow. Do your level best, and, as David Harum puts it, " do it fust." 

Nothing reveals character so much as the way you do your work. 
A botched job shows a poor workman, while a good piece of work 
shows the honesty of your purpose, adds to your manhood, and secures 
the confidence of all who have to do with you. In this way success 
is not only won but, what is more, royally deserved. 

Ask your father to give you what you can make from this plat of 
ground, provided you do not allow any weeds to go to seed. I think 
he will do it, and then you surprise him; I know you can do it. Then 
save the money you get from the sale of this produce as a fund with 
which to buy books. We shall have some suggestions to make in a 
later circular regarding the selection of books and how to use them. 

I have taken more space in this circular than was intended, but 
many of you have written letters which have an unusual inspiration, 
and you are urged to write to this department at any time. It is the 
aim of college extension work to be practically helpful to the young 
people of Illinois. You are cordially invited to make inquiries concern- 
ing the work of the Agricultural College, to the end that you may learn 
more as to what it is really doing for the young people of the state. 

If you should not be interested, kindly pass this circular to some 
young person. At some future time he may thank you. I do so now. 



140 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

For the sugar-beet experimental work in 1902 one boy 
made the following report, which illustrates the possibilities 
of work of this character : 

My plat of ground for the beets was 38 feet wide and 20 rods long, 
making 45 square rods of land. There were 26 rows of beets planted 
17 1 inches apart. The total expense of raising them is as follows : 

April 23, plowing $ .40 

" 24, twice harrowing 25 

May 10, cultivating with seeder 25 

" 10, harrowing 15 

" 27, disking 25 

" 27, twice planking ; planker weighed 600 pounds . . .25 

" 27, planting, 3 hours' work at 15 cents 45 

June 4, hoeing and straightening plants, 4 hours at 15 cents .60 

" 10, raking, 3 hours at 15 cents 45 

" 21, " 3 " " 15 " 45 

" 28, hoeing with wheel hoe 50 

July 7, thinning out, 20 hours at 15 cents 3.00 

" 9, hoeing by hand, 12 hours at 15 cents 1.S0 

" 19, hoeing with wheel hoe, 3 hours at 15 cents ... .45 

« 28, « » " " 3 » " 15 " ... .45 

Aug. 9, " " « "3 " " 15 " ... .45 

Sept. 13, weeding, 3 hours at 15 cents 45 

Nov. 10, harvesting, 40 hours at 15 cents 6.00 

" 10, team work 1.50 

Rent of land at $5.00 per acre 1.50 

Total cost of cultivating and harvesting .... $19.60 

The yield of the plat was 12,500 pounds. Deducting 1500 pounds 
for dirt leaves 11,000 pounds of beets. Number of tons, 5*; number 
of bushels (60 pounds to the bushel), 1S3. Actual cost of production 
per ton, $3.58 ; cost per bushel, 10 cents. Chemical analysis was 
sugar in beets, 18 per cent ; purity coefficient was S6.J per cent. Bests 
were fed to stock. 

Why should not the teacher in the country school 
encourage practical arithmetic work like the above instead 
of devoting so much time to foreign exchange ? 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



141 



The growing of high-bred corn by the boys is a move- 
ment to get both them and their fathers interested in im- 
proved types of grain. It is estimated that if every farmer 
in the United States who is raising corn would raise one 
bushel more to the acre, it would mean for every acre 
planted an annual increase of $25,000,000 to the wealth 
of the nation. This can be done by planting the improved 
varieties of corn and by better methods of cultivation. For 





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Fig. 73. Brother and Sister among their Beets 

three years various members of our Boys' Experiment Club 
have been doing this and selecting ten of the best ears raised 
from their experimental plats for exhibition at the annual 
county farmers' institute, where prizes are given boys in 
order of the excellence of their exhibits. For 1902 one 
hundred boys experimented by growing corn, for 1903 one 
hundred and twenty-seven boys grew high-bred corn, for 
1904 the number was one hundred and forty-three, and 
for 1905 there were one hundred and twelve boys. 



142 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The boys also make observations as to barren stalks of 
corn in plats one hundred hills square and compute the 
percentage. The time the tassel and silk appear on a 
stalk is noted. It is not expected that a ten-year-old boy 
will be equipped with a compound microscope of ten thou- 
sand diameters and will know the whole mystery of life 
from the study of a cross section of a grain of pollen, 
and that at a single sitting. Rather have him use his eyes, 
— a little observation this week, more next week, more 




Fig. 74. This Boy Hopes Soon to Take a Course at an 
Agricultural College 

next year, until the habit of observing is fixed and there 
grows silently within him the power to judge, and he 
becomes educated because he sees things with his eyes. 

As with the sugar beets, so in the experimental work 
with the high-bred corn: the Agricultural College Extension 
Department lends great assistance to the boys. Superin- 
tendent Fred Rankin, in May, 1905, issued a forty-page 
illustrated bulletin on " Studies of Corn and its Uses." 
This most valuable circular is full of suggestions for young 
people's clubs and for instruction in agriculture in the 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 143 

country schools. Copies were mailed to five hundred boys of 
my club, and to two hundred country school-teachers, while 
several hundred copies are in my office for distribution to 
school officers and prominent farmers. The bulletin is 
divided as follows : 

Part I. Study of the Corn Plant. 

Part II. Studies of an Ear of Corn. 

Part III. The Corn Score Card. 

Part IV. Studies of the Parts of a Kernel of Corn. 

Part V. The Commercial Products of Corn. 

Part VI. Suggestions for Corn Experiments. 

Part I is here given entire to illustrate the value and 
importance of this extension work. Note the practical 
arithmetic in 17, 18, 19, and 20. 

Part I. Study of the Corn Plant 

The development of the present breeds of cattle and other live 
stock plainly shows how careful, systematic, and intelligent selection 
has improved these animals. Plants respond to breeding and selec- 
tion as readily as do animals, and there is no longer any doubt that 
varieties of corn may be further improved by similar methods. 
Experiments conducted by the Illinois Agriculture Experiment 
Station and other similar institutions have conclusively shown that 
the composition of the corn kernel may be varied at the will of the 
careful breeder, — that it is possible to increase or decrease the amount 
of oil or of starch or of protein by selection of seed. An explana- 
tion of the different parts of the kernel of corn is given later. 

It is equally true that great variations may be made in the ears or 
the stalks by selection. The amount of husks, length of shank, size 
and height of stalk, position of ear on the stalk, the number of leaves, 
and in fact every physical characteristic, can be varied in a short 
time by simple selection. It is just as important to know the char- 
acter of every part of the corn plant as to know every characteristic of 
the animal. The size, shape, and characteristic of the stalk strongly 
influence the development of the ear and kernel of corn. 



144 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

STUDY OF THE CORN PLANT 

Name of variety Size of field 



i. Date the corn matures : (a) roasting ear 

(d) dented or glazed (<) ripe 

2. Height of corn : average of ten plants feet inches. 

3. Total number of leaves on ten plants taken from different 
hills Average number of leaves per plant 

4. Total number of leaves below the ear on ten plants taken from 
different hills Average 

5. Figure the total leaf surface on five average corn plants (for 
each leaf blade take twice the product of the length and average 
width) 

6. Length of ear stem, or shank (distance from joint, or node, to 
base of ear) Average of ten plants 

7. The ear stem, or shank, may be (a) large, or nearly or quite the 
diameter of the cob ; (/>) medium, or about half the diameter of the 
cob ; (<•) small, or one third or less the diameter of the cob. 

8. Husks (abundant, medium, scarce) 

9. Husks (close, medium, loose) 

10. Measure ten hills square ; give number of ears on these one 
hundred hills Average per hill 

11. Give number of stalks in the above area having two or more 
ears 

12. Give number of stalks in above area without ears (barren 
stalks) 

13. Give average height of ears in above area 

14. Position of the ears on stalks (pointing upward, horizontal, 
pointing downward) 

15. Distance apart of hills each way 

16. Give number of hills per acre 

17. Measure off one acre which represents a good average of the 
field ; husk one twentieth of this and after weighing same carefully 
estimate the average yield of field 

18. If hills of corn are 3 feet 6 inches each way, how many hills 
to the acre ? 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 145 

19. If in a field of corn planted 3 feet 6 inches each way there is 
on the average \\ pounds of corn to each hill, counting 80 pounds to 
the bushel to allow for shrinkage, what is the yield per acre ? 

20. If corn is planted 3 feet 6 inches each way, and when mature 
is cut and put into shocks, each shock containing the corn from an 

area fourteen hills square, how many shocks to the acre? 

How many shocks are sixteen hills square? 

The following table will assist in making an accurate estimate of 
the amount of land in different fields or plots : 



10 rods X 16 


rods = 


1 acre 


220 feet x 198 feet = 1 acre 


8 rods x 20 


rods = 


1 acre 


440 feet x 99 feet = 1 acre 


5 rods X 32 


rods = 


1 acre 


j 10 feet x 396 feet = 1 acre 


4 rods x 40 


rods = 


1 acre 


60 feet x 726 feet = 1 acre 


5 yards X 968 


yards = 


1 acre 


120 feet X 363 feet = 1 acre 


10 yards x 484 


yards = 


1 acre 


240 feet x 181. 5 feet = 1 acre 


20 yards x 242 


yards = 


1 acre 


200 feet x 180.9 feet = \ acre 


40 yards x 1 2 1 


yards = 


1 acre 


100 feet x 145.2 feet = \ acre 


80 yards x 60. 


5 yards = 


1 acre 


100 feet x 108.9 f eet — ? acre 



Some teachers allow or require their pupils to commit 
passages about tropical fruits, and perhaps make a perfect 
(so-called) recitation about the banana or the cocoanut. 
But to investigate and study a plant growing just outside 
the school yard, — " why, that is not education." Yet 
there are more country children who will make their living 
by growing corn than by growing tropical fruits. Not less 
knowledge, perhaps, of things far away, but more study of 
things in the environment of the country child is neces- 
sary. Corn is almost a common cereal for the United 
States. Last week I received a letter from a gentleman 
in North Carolina who wished me to send him all the liter- 
ature I could about corn, as the people of his county wished 
to begin corn growing and the farmers' institute movement. 
The same variety of corn will not do equally well in every 



146 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

part of the United States. Find out from your own Experi- 
ment Station what variety is suitable ; get an ear or two, and 
begin some experimental work with .your pupils. It will 
vitalize your language and composition work, your arith- 
metic, your drawing, your nature study, and will surely 
quicken the educational interest of the patrons of your 
district. It will require courage and some study on the 
part of the teacher to do this, for it is so much easier to 
go on asking questions from a book. 

When the boys of our club receive their corn to plant, 
the Illinois score card (see p. 190) is sent along, so that the 
boys may know how best to select ten ears for the exhibit. 

Measurements for Standard Varieties 

There are many standard varieties, or breeds, of corn in 
which we recognize distinct variety characteristics, just as 
we do in the case of the Shorthorn, Hereford, or Angus 
breeds of cattle. 

When as a boy I plowed corn in central Illinois I thought 
of corn as something to be fed to hogs, and I also knew that 
whisky was made from it. The boys of the Winnebago 
County Experiment Club are learning what can be made 
from corn besides pork and whisky. Speaking of the 
commercial products of corn, in Superintendent Rankin's 
interesting bulletin, Mr. Roy B. Simpson of the Glucose 
Sugar Refining Company, Chicago, says : 

Until recently corn has been considered only as of value for the 
making of corn bread and cakes, beef, pork, and whisky. However, 
when man comes to study this marvelous plant in a scientific way, 
science evolves other products in rapid succession. From it now 
come the finest qualities of oils for table purposes, for the mixing of 
paints, for lubricating purposes, for manufacturing soaps, and the 




Fig. 75- Some High-Bred Corn 




Fig. 76. Bottles showing Chemical Analysis of Com 1 

The first bottle at the left represents 100 ounces of shelled corn. The five bottles 
at the right represent the chemical composition of this corn as determined by 
analyses. The elements are as follows : carbohydrates, 80.35 ounces ; protein, 
10. g2 ounces ; oil, 4.70 ounces ; crude fiber, 2.60 ounces; ash, 1.43 ounces 



1 By courtesy of the Illinois Experiment Station, Urbana. 
147 



148 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

like. It yields gum, sugar, and sirup which cannot be surpassed. 
From it is obtained vulcanized corn oil, or corn rubber, which is used 
in the manufacture of rubber goods and linoleums ; and from the stalk 
are made the finest grades of paper. The pith of the stalk is converted 
into cellulose, which is used to protect war ships from shot and shell. 

For the last three years the boys of the Experiment 
Club have had a half-day session at the Winnebago County 
Annual Farmers' Institute. 

The boys are encouraged to keep memoranda of their 
corn growing and to write letters about their experimental 
work. These letters are sent to the County Superintendent 
of Schools and are published in his annual report and sent 
into every country home. The teacher in the regular work 
of the school can make the experimental work a basis for 
letter writing and thus be of great assistance to the boys in 
improving their power of expression. There is abundant 
room for improvement in the mechanics of letter writing, 
such as the use of capitals, punctuation, and paragraphing ; 
but if the boy has something to write and is not merely 
required to write something, there is more likelihood of his 
taking greater interest in what he generally considers a 
nuisance. The trouble with so much of our school work is 
that the teacher is content with the pupil's recitation of 
rules from memory, without his actually doing the thing- 
talked about. If the pupil does give to the teacher some 
written work, too often he is not shown his mistakes and 
required to correct them by rewriting the exercise. The 
complaint is made that our pupils do too much written work. 
There is truth in this. We need to do less and do it better. 

Following are three letters from boys about their prize 
high-bred corn (1904). These are fair specimens of many 
that were received. 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 149 



I 

I am sending you a record of the corn I raised for the institute. 

Plowed the ground seven inches deep one week before planting. 
Dragged twice the same day the corn was planted. The ground had 
had no fertilizer for two years. The previous crop was sweet corn. 

Planted the corn two inches and a half deep, in rows three feet 
and eight inches apart, the hills the same distance apart in the row. 
It was planted on May 17 and came up on the 21st, with no cultiva- 
tion before it came up. Cultivated three times and hoed twice, the 
last time on the 2d of July. The corn tasseled out on the 6th of July 
and silked on the 20th. On the 13th of September I gathered it and 
hung it in the corn crib to cure for about a month. I then took it 
down and put it up by the stovepipe to dry for a while, then picked 
out the best ears and rolled them in paper, packed them in a box 
so that they would not get shelled or damaged, and then picked out 
ten cars for the institute. 

II 

My experimental crop consisted of Learning corn. First I plowed 
the ground and then I rolled all the lumps off, so it left it in good 
condition for planting. I took a hoe and dug the holes, so that I 
could put the corn in moist dirt. I put three grains in a hill and made 
the hills three feet eight inches apart. I planted five hundred grains. 
Twenty failed to grow. There was a good deal of smut and suckers 
on my corn. ,1 cut the smut and suckers off. 

This is the work I did on my corn : 

Hauling one load of manure \ hour $ .15 

May 10, 1904, plowing, 6 inches deep . . . . ^ hour .15 

" 10, dragging 4- hour .15 

" 16, planting corn \ hour .15 

" 29, cultivation 40 minutes .20 

" 31, hoeing 40 minutes .20 

June 16, plowing 40 minutes .25 

July 20, hoeing 25 minutes .10 

Total $1.35 

My corn is worth $3.75, and the profit is $2.40. 



150 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

III 

... In conclusion I have added the most important things I 
learned, experimental and otherwise. 

The first thing that took my notice was that there were no losses 
from insects or cutworms. Having heard that smut germs floated in 
the air and grew whenever they struck a bruise on a stalk, I deter- 
mined to find out for myself. So I punctured three stalks, and in 
less than three days I was surprised to find smut growing there. I 
cut it off and it ceased to grow. Then when the corn began to silk 
I wondered how to prevent so many poor ears of corn from growing. 
At last the thought came to me that I would cut off the silks, which 
Ldid, and found a week later that the ears were all shriveled up, and 
still later were dead. Thus I found another way to prevent ears from 
fertilizing. In doing so I prevented the growth of many poor ears 
and helped the stronger ones. 

Therefore, by raising corn on the scale given by Mr. Hostetter, I have 
learned enough extra to more than pay for all the trouble it gave me. 

The organization of boys' clubs has spread to many 
localities in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and 
Texas. Doubtless other states have inaugurated this move- 
ment, but the data are not at hand to specify by name. In 
Ohio the boys' agricultural club movement started with 
Superintendent A. B. Graham of Springfield township, 
Clarke County. So successful was Superintendent Graham 
in this work that he has been elected to take charge of the 
extension work of the College of Agriculture of the state 
university at Columbus. In collaboration with members of 
the faculty he is issuing some excellent bulletins that are 
calculated to exert a great influence. The latest of these, 
issued March, 1906, on "The Centralized Schools of Ohio," 
ought to be put into the hands of every patron of country 
schools. Some of the photographs used in that bulletin are 
used in Chapter XII. 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



151 



Superintendent Cap E. Miller of Sigourney, Iowa, has 
attracted national attention by his work for the country 
schools. His annual report for 1 903-1 904 shows that he 
is a man who brings things to pass. There is an account 
of a county spelling contest, a county educational rally, 
township historical contests, agricultural conventions for 
boys and girls, and an educational excursion to the Iowa 
State College of Agriculture, June 3, 1904, which was 
attended by nearly fifteen hundred persons. A school fair 
and a farmers' insti- 
tute were organized. 
By combining his 
annual teachers' in- 
stitute with the local 
Chautauqua Assem- 
bly his teachers were 
enabled to hear some 
of the best speakers 
on the lecture plat- 
form. 

Miss Anna Lois 
Barbre, County Super- 
intendent of Chris- 
tian County, Illinois, has a large and enthusiastic boys' club. 
Two excursions have been made to the College of Agricul- 
ture at the University of Illinois. She is planning for five 
hundred boys to take part in the corn-growing contest 
of 1906. 

Other counties in Illinois having boys' clubs, so far as I 
have been able to get information, are Johnson, La Salle, 
Marion, McHenry, Piatt, and Mason. 

1 By courtesy of the Illinois Experiment Station, Urbana. 




Fig. 77. Testing the Germination of Corn with 
Plates of Sand. 1 (For cross section of a 
kernel, see Fig. 98) 



152 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



In Illinois the latest development of the boys' work is 
the offering of free scholarships for the two weeks' short 
course at the College of Agriculture to the boys making the 
highest scores in judging corn at the -local farmers' insti- 
tutes in the various counties. This movement was started 
by Director A. P. Grout of Scott County. Last February 




Fig. 78. Some Prize Winners of the Winnebago County Girls' 
Home Culture Club 



his congressional district sent twenty-six boys to the corn 
school at the College of Agriculture at Urbana. In all, 
seventy-five boys were sent from twenty-nine counties, 
with all expenses paid for the two weeks. The attendance 
at the corn school of 1907 bids fair to show a great increase 
in attendance on the part of boys. Winnebago County is 
planning to send a dozen or more. 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 



153 



To Nebraska belongs the honor of doing a big thing and 
doing it in a most successful way. J. L. McBrien, State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, gave to his deputy, 
Mr. Bishop, permission to inaugurate a boys' corn-growing 
and a girls' cooking contest that would take in the entire 
state, the sum of one thousand dollars to be given in prizes 
to the successful boys and girls. The work was systematic- 
ally planned, and literature on the subject was scattered 
broadcast over the state. The contest closed at the state 
capital, Lincoln, in December, 1905, with a great meeting 
and a banquet. There were six hundred and twenty-nine 
boys and girls present from all over the state. The banquet 
was under the direction of a French chef and consisted of 
seven courses that exemplified the wonderful food qualities 
of Nebraska corn. 

MENU 

Corn Soup Pop-Corn Float 

Corn Relish 

Hot Corn Tamales 

Hulled Corn with State-Farm Cream 

State-Farm Corn-Fed Beef a la Challenger 

Nebraska White Prize Hot Corn Bread with State-Farm 

Student Butter 

Aunt Chloe's Corn Pone 

Granulated Plominy Grits Croquettes en Surprise 

Reid's Yellow Dent Johnny Cake with Milk 

Baked Indian Corn Pudding 

Cream of Corn Sauce Molded Corn Ice Cream 

Corn Meal Wafers Golden Corn Cake 

Corn Coffee 

" Corn toasts " were responded to by prominent men 
of the state and nation. 

A good beginning has thus been made, and the purpose 
is to continue along more comprehensive lines. Local clubs 



154 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

will be organized with a constitution, and county organiza- 
tions will be encouraged. Plans for 1906 are well under way 
and include the following departments : 

For Boys 

1. Corn growing. 

2. Wheat growing. 

3. Sugar-beet growing. 

4. Potato growing. 

5. Manual training, — making of articles, useful or ornamental, 
for the home. 

For Girls 

1 . Cooking of corn products. 

2. Cooking of white and brown bread. 

3. Preserving of fruits and vegetables. 

4. Needlework, including plain sewing, embroidery, crocheting, 
and fancy work. 

5. House ornaments. 

6. Sugar-beet growing. 

7. Potato growing. 

Mr. Dick Crosby of the Experiment Station, Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., has made a careful study 
of the boys' agricultural club movements. The results of 
his studies and investigations have been issued in bulletin 
form. The bulletin closes with the following summary : 

Collectively the boys have learned the value of organized effort, of 
cooperation, and of compromise, and the social instinct has been 
developed in them, — a matter of great importance in rural districts, 
where the isolated condition of the people has always been a great 
drawback to progress. 

The influence upon the communities at large, the parents as well 
as the children, has been wholesome. Beginning with an awakening 
of interest in one thing, better seed corn, the communities have rapidly 
extended their interest to other features of rural improvement, with 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 155 

the result that in the regions affected by the boys' agricultural club 
movement there has come about a general upward trend to the thoughts 
and activities of the people. 

Superintendent G. F. Snyder of Bamboo, Wisconsin, has 
recently issued his yearbook for 1905 on the Sauk County 
schools, which gives interesting details of his work. It 
contains also many excellent illustrations of the most beau- 
tiful scenes in the Wisconsin lake region. Superintendent 
Snyder has been active in organizing boys' and girls' clubs 
and in awakening a general interest in agriculture. He con- 
ducted an educational excursion of fifteen hundred persons 
from his county to the Wisconsin College of Agriculture, 
June 10, 1905. 

Many schools in his county have had school gardens with 
good results, and farmers' meetings have been held, at which 
school men and instructors from the College of Agriculture 
have talked on questions of vital interest to the country 
school and farm. Superintendent Snyder was instrumen- 
tal in securing a county training school for his county, and 
will soon give up the duties of his office to enter upon the 
management of this training school for country teachers. 

The following is an account of the work of County Super- 
intendent H. T. Ports of Marengo, Iowa, as given by a 
Des Moines paper : 

On April 8, 1904, at a county historical essay contest of the school 
children, the boys and girls were called together for the purpose of 
organizing two clubs, with the result that there were twenty -two charter 
members to the boys' club and twenty-four charter members to the 
girls' club. From this small beginning they have increased in num- 
bers, until now they each have a membership of about three hundred. 

The boys have been experimenting largely with farm industries, 
and the girls have been centering their efforts in the art of making 
the home beautiful and comfortable. Outlines for observation, study, 



156 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

and work have been furnished the club members from time to time 
by their superintendent, which have been the basis of all their opera- 
tions. Plant life and animal life in all their phases have been the 
principal sources of study and observation. The girls have experi- 
mented in the growing of flowers and all kinds of garden products, 
while the boys have experimented in all kinds of field crops, as well 
as garden products, and have carefully studied all the domestic ani- 
mals, and a great many things equally interesting and important to 
boys and girls alike have been studied in common. The girls have 
also followed a course of outlines on hygiene and health of the home, 
and have done much in the domestic-science department. They are 
taught to cook, sew, and care for the various departments of the home, 
from the most trivial to the most important. Boys have been encour- 
aged in the use of all kinds of tools in the manufacture of articles 
and implements useful to the home and farm. Combined with the 
industrial work is the literary work. Language and mathematics are 
emphasized, and essay, declamatory, spelling, and other literary 
contests are always held in connection with the industrial contests. 
Excursions and picnics are frequently had for the purpose of encour- 
aging the boys and girls, and to emphasize the different parts of the 
work. Two excursions have been made to the State Agricultural 
College at Ames. On the first about seven hundred went and on 
the second about twelve hundred. Township and county meetings 
have been held frequently, where boys and girls are allowed to take 
part, and where special instructions are given by men and women of 
superior qualifications. 

County Superintendent John F. Haines of Hamilton 
County, Indiana, has organized a Boys' Corn Club of nearly 
three hundred members, and for two years the boys have 
been growing corn for the annual corn contest. Each boy 
was given twelve hundred grains of a good variety to plant 
in experimental plots of ground. Specific instructions were 
given with reference to cultivation, observation, etc. 

In August, 1905, Superintendent Haines conducted an 
educational excursion from his county to the Indiana State 



A FARMER BOYS' EXPERIMENT CLUB 157 

Agricultural College at Lafayette. More than three hun- 
dred boys and their parents went on this excursion, and all 
expressed themselves delighted with the trip. Mr. Haines 
conducted a scoring contest at the last annual meeting of 
the boys. He says : 

It is safe to say that one hundred boys could be selected in Ham- 
ilton County whose -knowledge of corn is superior to that of any one 
hundred men that could be selected in the county. 

County Superintendent Bunnell of Laporte County, In- 
diana, has issued rules and regulations for a mammoth 
corn contest in his county for the year 1906. The first 
prize is one hundred dollars, the second seventy-five dollars, 
the third fifty dollars, etc. The boys must make a special 
study of the corn plant, must plant one acre, — no more 
and no less, — and each boy must attend the local farmers' 
institutes for two years unless prevented by sickness. Each 
contestant must take a bushel of his best corn to the 
institute for 1906, and from this bushel select the ears for 
the final contest. The boy making the highest number of 
points, not counting cash premiums, in each township will 
have all his expenses paid for a week to attend the corn and 
stock judging school at the State College of Agriculture. 

As has been said before in this chapter, the work with 
boys needs to be followed up for several years. It takes 
about a generation to effect real permanent results in this 
line. The past has too often witnessed a movement of this 
kind flourish vigorously for two or three years and then die 
because the promoters were so busy keeping their halos in 
proper condition for public inspection that there was not 
time for the next forward step that must always be taken. 



CHAPTER VIII 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS TO THE COLLEGE 
OF AGRICULTURE 

In my work as County Superintendent of Schools, in 
attempting a solution of the country-school problem it has 
seemed that the educational excursion to the State College 
of Agriculture and Experiment Station is a very important 




Fig. 79. The Excursion of Winnebagoes (1903) in Front of the 
College of Agriculture, University of Illinois 

factor in creating a new educational ideal among the farm- 
ers with reference to the training of their children. The 
excursion is supplementary to the printing press and the 
farmers' institute movement in putting the people, espe- 
cially the boys and girls, of the country districts in touch 
with higher institutions of learning, and at the same time 
enlarging their views of life by a railroad trip. One of the 
hardest of tasks is to create a sentiment for better things 
in the average district school. The average farmer is 
quick to recognize the value of improved farm machinery, 

1 5 S 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



159 



electric roads, and telephones ; but when one begins to talk 
to him about corresponding improvement in the country 
school, its material equipment, surroundings, improved 
course of study, and better teachers with better salaries, 
at once he stops you with : " Why, when I was a boy I 
went to an old log house, sat on a long bench, and studied 
a spelling book. Now look at me and my farm. I have 
made a success of life." I don't pretend to say that we 
have found in Winnebago County the only way to create 
this new ideal. Hard work, infinite patience, steadfast per- 
sistency, and tact are some of the elements that must obtain 



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• TT1 


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feSSiss^ 


S&g 


B2?9| 












B» ■* « u = ...u, i .: 5 j | 


IP! 


I l1 irF# 4^4*1 












na^ns^jj 


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Fig. 80. The Illinois College of Agriculture 

if efforts to create a spirit for better things in the country 
school, or any movement looking towards the spiritualization 
of country life and thought, shall be crowned with success. 
Not all the education of the country child is acquired 
in the country school. It has been said that the farm edu- 
cates the child as much as the district school. The time is 
at hand when we must teach more practical things in the 
district schools. The child should visit places and see 
things for himself. Children see things along the country 
road to school, but they are not taught to think about 
these things ; we allow them to spend too much time in 
reading about things. The polar bear gets more of the 



160 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

child's attention in books than does the study of a noxious 
weed on the farm, and it cannot be doubted that he is more 
interested in the one than in the other. The reason for this 
preference is not far to seek. The weed is a thoroughly 
familiar object, and it is an unalterable law of psychology 
that we do not attend to that which is wholly familiar. 
What is needed is that the significance of that noxious 
weed should be pointed out, and its relation to the life of 
the boy and to his prosperity as a farmer indicated. Then 
he will attend because there is something attractive about 
the object. The average country child will hardly be called 
upon to study arctic animals in their native environment, but 
there are many things worth knowing in an excursion of an 
hour or so in the neighborhood of the district schoolhouse. 
The educational excursion was planned by me shortly 
after my organization of the Winnebago County Farmer 
Boys' Experiment Club (see preceding chapter) in 1902. 
The following has been the result : 

First Excursion : June, 1902; to Illinois College of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station at UrMana ; persons going, 130 boys and 
girls and 150 adults (total, 280); fare, $2.50 round trip; time, two 
days ; distance, 214 miles. 

Second Excursion : June, 1903 ; to Illinois College of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station at Urbana ; persons going, 112 boys and 
girls and 93 adults (total, 205) ; fare, time, and distance the same 
as on first excursion. 

Third Excursion. ■' June, 1904 ; to Iowa State College of Agricul- 
ture and Experiment Station at Ames ; persons going, 90 boys and 
girls and n 1 adults (total, 201) ; fare, $4.00 round trip; time, two 
days; distance, 318 miles. 

Fourth Excursion : June, 1905; to Wisconsin State College of 
Agriculture and Experiment Station at Madison ; persons going, 
156 boys and girls and 170 adults (total, 326); fare, $1.25 round 
trip ; time, two days ; distance, 65 miles. 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



161 



The grand total for four years was 488 boys and girls and 524 
adults, or a complete total of 1012 persons ; and each excursion was 
practically a new party. In the second excursion there were only 
thirteen persons who went on the first. Twenty-two school-teachers 
were among the number who went on the last excursion. 

It has not been my effort to secure large crowds. The 
brass band and hurrah features have been entirely elimi- 
nated. The excursions have been strictly educational, and 
persons going were those most interested, — those who 
had eyes to see and brains to think, and used both. It is 
safe to say that each returning party has been an educa- 
tional missionary force in behalf of better education for the 




Fig. 81. The Cattle Barn, Illinois College of Agriculture 

farmer. Estimating that each of the one thousand and 
twelve persons interested at least two friends on his return 
with an account of what he saw, then a total of three thou- 
sand persons were reached in a most effective manner. As 
the four annual excursions were ably and fully treated by 
the local press, as well as by illustrated printed matter 
sent by the county superintendent into every school in the 
county, it is a conservative estimate to claim that ten thou- 
sand other persons had their attention called in a very prac- 
tical way to the work of one of the most important of our state 
institutions, namely, the work of the College of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station. Good results will come in time in 



162 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

a general educational uplift in the interests of the country 
schools of our county. If I hear of no other return, the 
following extract from a letter has amply repaid all my 
efforts to inspire the boys and girls with higher ideals : 

... It is through the excursion to the University of Illinois that I 
am most indebted to you, as that kindled my desire for an agricultural 
education. As I could not afford a four years' course, I went to 
Madison the following fall (1902) and commenced the short course 
at the University of Wisconsin, and secured a position at the Experi- 
ment Station of that place during the summer of 1903, and last winter 
completed the course. 

The writer of this letter, by working with his hands, ob- 
tained an education and secured an honorable position. 

With these educational excursions the cost of success is 
plenty of hard work and earnest thought. An illustrated 
chapter about the excursion is printed in my annual report 
and sent into every country home in the county. The 
Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, — a newspaper earnestly 
advocating improvement on the farm and in the country 
school, — very kindly spoke as follows of the McHenry and 
Winnebago County educational excursions : 

They make careful plans and good ones and start them in opera- 
tion, but do not stop with any mere theory or formal procedure, how- 
ever perfect or unique, but get out in the field, see how their plans 
are working, and work them, revising where necessary, meeting any 
deficiency, putting the whole weight of their personality and influence 
into the project, meeting doubts, overcoming objections, securing 
personal pledges, absolutely doing things, — and then people wonder 
why they succeed. 

Their spirit and methods should be studied, emulated, and adapted 
to local conditions by other would-be-successful workers in similar 
fields. The price of success seems to be devotion, work (plenty of it), 
and the ingenuity of plan that comes from great earnestness and 
continued brooding over things desired to be accomplished. 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 163 

A detailed account of each of our four annual excursions 
cannot here be given. To Professor R. A. Moore and his 
associates of the Wisconsin College of Agriculture great 
credit must be given for a most perfect programme of 
visitation, which was carried out to the letter. A type- 
written copy of the programme for the two days' visit 
was given each member of our party of three hundred and 
twenty-six. This is reproduced here, so that the reader 
may know what the Winnebagoes are doing and seeing on 
these educational excursions. 

Annual Excursion of Boys' Experiment Club and Girls' 

Home Culture Club of Winnebago County, Illinois, 

to Madison, Wisconsin, Friday and Saturday, June 2-3, 

1905 1 

A Visit to the University of Wisconsin 

Friday, June 2 

12.30 p.m. : Arrive at Madison via C & N. W. Ry. Take street cars 
in waiting at the depot and go direct to Agricultural Hall and have 
photo taken in group. 

1 -1. 20 p.m.: Address in auditorium, Agricultural Hall, by Dean W. A. 
Henry. 

1.20-2 p.m. : Tour of inspection through Agricultural Hall. The 
various laboratories, lecture rooms, and library will be visited. 

2-2.45 P-M. : Dairy building, — creamery, cheese room, Pasteurizing 
laboratory, separating rooms, dairy machinery, etc. 

2.45-3.30: Horticulture, — physics building, greenhouses, laborato- 
ries, apparatus, etc. A visit to the orchard and nursery. 

3.30-4 p.m. : Experimental plots, — one hundred varieties of grain and 
forage plants on experiment. 

4-5.30 p.m. : Live-stock buildings, — horses, cattle, sheep, and swine 
on exhibition. An exhibit of farm machinery in sheep-judging 
building. Instructors will be in their respective departments to 
answer questions and give all the useful information possible. 

5.30 p.m. : Take a street car for down town from University Farm. 
Meals at Central Hotel and Fess House. Rooms in the vicinity 



1 64 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

of the university, with private families to accommodate two hun- 
dred. Those desiring to get rooms near the university will take 
meals at 425 and 426 State Street. Cars will stop at these places. 
Guides will be on hand to assist visitors in securing rooms. 

6-7 p.m. : Supper. 

8-9 p.m. : Visit to the state capitol, senate and assembly chambers, 
offices, executive rooms, etc. Informal reception by Governor 
La Follette. Enter capitol at north door, where guides will be 
in waiting. 

Saturday, June j 

6-7.30 a.m. : Breakfast, visit to university. 

8-9 a.m. : Women visit domestic-science department, South Hall. 

8-9 a.m. : Men at engineering building and machine shops. 

9-9.30 a.m.: Men and women, — Science Hall, geological and bio- 
logical museums. 

9.30-10 a.m.: Gymnasium, — running track, drill room, ball cage, 
and natatorium. 

10-10.45 A - M - : Joint Historical Library, — museums, reading rooms, 
book stacks, etc. 

10.45-n a.m. : Take cars for boat landing, foot of Carroll Street. 

1 1 -1 2.30: Boat ride on Lake Monona. 

12.30-2 p.m. : Dinner at Central Hotel, Fess House, and One Minute 
Rest. 

2.10 p.m. : Leave Madison for Janesville. 

The entire trip was most profitable. Madison is a beau- 
tiful place, and the weather was that of "a day in June, 
when, if ever, come perfect days." On our return home a 
stop of one hour was made at Janesville to inspect the 
plant of the Rock County Sugar Beet Company. This is 
the company that so generously donated beet seed to the 
boys of the Experiment Club. 

At the Illinois State College of Agriculture the Winne- 
bagoes were warmly greeted by Dean Davenport and his 
faculty, and during the entire stay every courtesy was 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



•65 



shown us and every effort made to make the visit pleasant 
and profitable. In the main, the tour of inspection here and 
at Iowa was the same as that described for Wisconsin. 

At Illinois College and Station the men and boys spent 
one afternoon in walking over the experimental farm and 
listening to the explanations of the instructors in farm 
crops, dairying, live stock, horticulture, etc. Sugar beets, 
corn, soy beans, cow peas, oats, wheat, and alfalfa were 
inspected. Some roots of the alfalfa were pulled up, and 




Fig. 82. Looking at the Live Stock, Ames (Iowa) Experiment Station 

the boys were shown the tubercles in which are the bac- 
teria that store the nitrogen from the air and thus serve to 
maintain the fertility of the soil. It seemed like a fairy 
story to the boys to be told that the soil must be inocu- 
lated by these bacteria, and a field was shown on the 
experimental farm from which this inoculated soil was 
being sent to various points in Illinois, so that the farmers 
might scatter it over their own fields to insure the growth 
of alfalfa, the multiplication of bacteria, the gathering of 
nitrogen, and the consequent enrichment of the soil. 

Is not this knowledge worth while in the education of 
the farmer boy of Illinois ? Does it not rank in importance 



1 66 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

with the fact which he commits to memory from his geog- 
raphy that the Nile River overflowing annually keeps up 
the fertility of the soil for the people of Egypt ? Our 
fathers bought land from the government for $1.25 per 
acre. Providence furnished rain, sunshine, and a fertile 
soil, and rich fields of grain covered the face of the earth. 
It could not be otherwise with proper industry. Now science 
must go with industry if our boys expect to make five per 
cent clear profit on land costing not $1.25 but $125 per acre 
in northern Illinois, in this beautiful Rock River valley. 

Following is an account, written by a ten-year-old boy, 
of his impressions of an excursion to the Illinois College of 
Agriculture. 

The trip was a very enjoyable one, and I will try to tell you about 
some of the things that we saw there. We left Rockford June 5, at 
4.30 a.m. on the Illinois Central Railroad. Between Rockford and 
Chicago I saw thirteen schoolhouses, none of which had any trees in 
the yard. At Chicago Superintendent Kern took us to see Logan's 
statue. We had time before leaving to get a general view of the lake 
front, Michigan Avenue, and to see the tallest mercantile building 
in the world. We left Chicago for Urbana at 8.30 A.M. In South 
Chicago I saw the drainage canal and the swinging bridges. 

At Kankakee there are stone quarries, but soon after leaving there 
I saw no stone quarry and noticed that most of the foundations of the 
houses were brick. There was a noticeable change in the appearance 
of the trees. I saw no leaf-blighted branches nor half-dead trees. 
The groves which I saw looked thrifty. The country from Chicago 
to Urbana is very level and I saw many flooded fields. 

On arriving at Champaign about noon we were conducted by 
Mr. Fred H. Rankin to specially provided cars, on which we rode to the 
university grounds. We were met there by the dean of the college 
(Mr. Davenport), who conducted us to the stock-judging pavilion, 
where we were served with coffee, sandwiches, and cake. 

After dinner we were shown through the main agricultural build- 
ing, each professor explaining his part. This is the largest building 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



I6 7 



devoted to this purpose in the world. Then Professor Shamel took 
us over the fields and showed and told us about the sugar beets, cow- 
peas, soy beans, and the wheat which had been planted. 

He showed us a piece of land that had been planted to corn for 
twenty-five years without once having been manured. He showed us 
a field of alfalfa, and pulled up one of the plants that we might see 
the tubercles that deposit the nitrogen taken from the air into the soil. 

Here also they were experimenting on planting corn, oats, clover, 
cow peas, and soy beans at different depths. We were shown the horse 
department, where they have some fine specimens of the Morgan horse. 




Fig. 83. At the Oats Breeding Plots, Ames, Iowa 

We next went to the dairy barns and saw the herd of cows under 
a test. In the beef department they had three car loads of cattle 
feeding for a test. They also had some fine specimens of Polled 
Angus and Shorthorns. From the cattle department we went to the 
orchards, where the spraying of trees was explained to us. In the 
evening we were entertained at Morrow Hall. Each professor gave 
a short talk explaining his department and what was being done in it. 

The next morning we met at the Armory and were conducted 
through the gymnasium and the engineering hall. . . . Some of the 
other buildings which we visited are the electrical and mechanical 
engineering buildings, the hydraulic building, the central heating 
plant, the natural-history hall, and the library building. The latter 
js considered the finest building on the grounds and contains fifty 



i6S 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



thousand volumes. Having some time left, I revisited the museum in 
the natural-history hall. 

The electrical and mechanical engineering buildings seemed to be 
of special interest to the boys. One of the professors said he thought 
it was because the wheels went round. Perhaps he was right. But I, 
for one, would like to take a course in this or some similar institution 
and find out what makes the wheels go round. 

The excursionists went through the laboratories, where 
they saw students at work on corn, soil, etc. Dr. C. G. 
Hopkins, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, of the Illinois 




Fig. 84. Insp 



ins; Alfalfa at A: 



College of Agriculture, together with his assistants, has for 
seven years been investigating and breeding corn so as to 
increase the yield per acre and at the same time improve 
its composition or quality. Four different strains of corn 
have been developed, namely, the " Illinois high protein," 
" Illinois low protein," " Illinois high oil," and " Illinois 
low oil." Brief!}', the work has been to breed up the 
average size of the ear, to eliminate barren and inferior 
stalks, and to increase the amount of oil and protein. The 
protein is the nitrogenous substance in corn, and is the 
fundamental food required by growing stock to produce 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



169 



muscle, bone, and tissue, while the oil is the fatty part of 
corn, which is wanted by the feeder of cattle and hogs; at 
the same time corn, having a high percentage of oil, has a 
higher commercial value for factory use. 

Corn is king. The visitor who inspected the farm 
exhibits in the Palace of Agriculture at the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition must have been impressed with the royal 




Fig. 85. The Famous "Blue Grays" on Experiment Farm, Ames, Iowa 



claims of corn above all the other grains of the field. But 
to my mind, after a study of the exhibits of corn there, 
the prodigal display of corn with its many manufactured 
products was not the most significant thing in this wonder- 
ful exhibition. Near the huge pyramid of golden ears raised 
by the farmer boys of Illinois, in the space allotted to the 
Prairie State, was a small exhibit that, perhaps, did not 
attract the attention of more than one out of every five 



i;o AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

hundred persons who strolled through this fascinating build- 
ing. It was an exhibit of the Illinois College of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station, showing the results of seven years 
of scientific breeding and consequent development of corn. 
Here was an illustration of things done in the domain of 
the new agriculture, a page from the scientific text-book 
on the new education for the farm, — a book which in its 
wonderful possibilities reads like some tale of magic. The 
mastery of this book means greater power for the new 
farmer, and our country schools must be able to teach the 
country child how to read it. The educational excursion 
will help to reveal to the country people the possibilities 
of the new country school. 

The excursion to the College of Agriculture at Ames, 
Iowa, in 1904, gave most of the boys and girls their first 
glimpse of the mighty Mississippi River. Many of them 
had never been outside of their home county; a few had 
never been on a railroad train ; but in this centennial year 
of the Louisiana Purchase, while most of them did not go 
to the St. Louis Exposition, yet they could say that they 
t raveled over a part of the Louisiana territory, which one 
hundred years ago wise statesmen at Washington regarded 
as a vast wilderness not likely to be settled for a thousand 
years to come. It was a great excursion through some of 
the finest portions of Illinois and Iowa. Surely this is the 
garden spot of the world and worthy of all effort to dignify 
the occupation of the people, to develop the science of agri- 
culture, and to enrich the life and reward more abundantly 
the labor of a people who till the finest fields ever showered 
with sunshine or rain. 

A raft of logs was seen while we were crossing the 
Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa. In their after-school 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



171 



work this would serve to interest the pupils in the lumber 
industry and the reason of its decline along the river. Why 
does the state of Michigan have a forestry commission ? 
Why teach forestry in the Michigan State Agricultural 
College ? What is forestry anyway ? Why plant trees ? 
W T hen school children plant trees on barren school grounds, 
are they having a part in the great forestry movement 
sweeping over the country ? Connect the country school 









. . '• •■'•',_ 







Fig. 



Winnebagoes " on the Trail " to Madison, Wisconsin, 
June, 1905 



more with life. Plant trees and flowers, and in school 
gardens care for plants and learn of the soil. 

Our boys and their fathers were much interested in the 
cross-breeding experiment in cattle going on under the 
direction of Dean Curtiss, Director of the Experiment 
Station. While looking at the famous "Blue Grays," Dean 
Curtiss said : 

This is the first work of this kind to be taken up in America. In 
Scotland this system of producing cattle has been practiced for a 
number of years. The " Blue Gray " cattle produced by this cross 
are decidedly the most popular feeding Galloways on the market, and 
it is also claimed that their meat is superior to that of other stock. 



172 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Feeding experiments are being conducted with these cattle at the 
college, and at the conclusion of the investigations they will be 
slaughtered and careful block tests made to determine the relative 
quality of their meat and economy of production. 

On our way to Ames we passed through an Indian reser- 
vation, and the boys and girls saw some of the descendants 
of the original inhabitants of the Louisiana Territory, lead- 
ing much the same life as their ancestors of one hundred 
years ago. There were rude wigwams, with the squaws 
weaving bright-colored blankets. As the train whirled 
through this bit of uncivilized country small patches of 
corn were seen growing here and there. It was a far cry 
from the corn patches of these Indians to the corn experi- 
ments of the Ames Station and the corn train which ran 
throughout Iowa for four weeks in the spring of 1904 under 
the direction of Professor P. G. Holden of the Iowa College 
of Agriculture. 

Professor Holden traveled through most of the state on 
special trains furnished by the railroads. His object was 
to interest the farmers in scientific methods of corn raising, 
especially in the matter of the selection of proper seed for 
the spring planting. This was Agricultural College exten- 
sion work on a large scale. If his work should result in the 
increase of one bushel per acre on the basis of 1903 seed- 
ing, it would be an increase of 7,398,320 bushels in Iowa's 
corn crop. This means over two million dollars added to 
the wealth of Iowa. 

The selection and testing of seed corn is one of the most 
important and at the same time one of the easiest ways for 
the country school-teacher to begin elementary work in agri- 
culture. A box of earth in the schoolroom and an ear of corn 
from seed selected by some farmer in the neighborhood 



EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS 



173 



are all the material needed at first. Of course a sufficient 
amount of moisture and heat are necessary when the 
grains of corn are put into the box of earth. Moist sand 
will do as well as dirt. Put one hundred kernels into the 
box and see how many sprout. Once the work is started 
and the results begin to be known, the entire community 




Fig. 87. The Arrival at Madison : in Front of the New College 
of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin 

will soon become interested. This work can be made to 
correlate with arithmetic and language work. 

A valuable bulletin for help and suggestion may be had 
of Dean Davenport, Urbana, Illinois. This bulletin, No. 96, 
"The Testing of Corn for Seed," issued by the Experi- 
ment Station, is written by Albert N. Hume, First Assist- 
ant in Crop Production. It is finely illustrated, and I know 
of nothing better of its kind for a beginning in the study 
of corn. Mr. Hume tells the simplest way of sprouting 
seed and gives two pictures to show all the apparatus neces- 
sary, — simply; two dinner plates and moist sand. 



174 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

To show the importance of testing seed corn before 
planting, the following quotation is given from the bulletin: 

Granting, then, that 8.81 per cent of the seed planted failed to 
grow, and that there were 1,000,000 bushels of corn used for seed in 
Illinois, the amount of corn planted which did not grow was 88,100 
bushels. Valuing it at $2.00 per bushel, it represented a dead loss of 
$176,200. This amount alone would pay for testing practically every 
ear of corn planted in Illinois, counting labor at #1.50 a day. The 
great loss, however, consists in the shortage of the crop, due to this poor 
seed. The valuation of the corn crop in Illinois, as given in the year- 
book of the Department of Agriculture for 1903, was $95,000,000. 
Counting the proportionate loss, therefore, which might have been 
prevented by proper testing of seed corn, we have $8,369,500. The 
data herein presented certainly justify the conclusion that such a sum 
could have been saved by Illinois corn growers the past year by 
properly testing seed. 

The expectation is that the educational excursion for 
1906 will return to Urbana to see the growth of the 
Illinois College of Agriculture and of the University of 
Illinois since 1903. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL AND THE FARMERS' 
INSTITUTE 

At the Illinois State Farmers' Institute round-up held at 
Joliet, February 21-23, l 9°$> Professor Frank Hall, Super- 
intendent of the Illinois Farmers' Institutes, gave an inter- 
esting report with reference to attendance for the institute 
season just closed. From reports of ninety counties out of 
one hundred and two, the attendance was as follows : 

Farmers 20,000 

Farmers' wives 10,000 

School teachers 2,000 

Pupils 20,000 

Total 52,000 

The word " farmers " stands for those directly interested 
in agriculture. There are at least five hundred thousand 
farmers in Illinois, so that by the above figures one farmer 
in twenty-five attended the institutes throughout the 
state. There are twenty-seven thousand teachers in the 
state. Thus one out of every thirteen teachers attended 
the institutes. But these two thousand teachers, allowing 
an average of twenty pupils to the teacher, come in contact 
with forty thousand pupils. 

Superintendent Hall further reports that combination 
institutes were held in many counties, where at the request 
of the County Superintendent of Schools the schools were 
closed for Educational Day and teachers and pupils attended 
the sessions for that day. 

T 75 



176 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The superintendent names thirty-eight school superin- 
tendents and prominent teachers who have appeared on the 
programme of the various farmers' institutes. In at least 
thirty counties the pupils of the eighth grade and of the 
high school in the city in which the institute was held 
were allowed to attend one or more sessions of the local 
institutes. Very interesting sessions of this kind were 
held in Christian, Jasper, Jefferson, Kendall, Knox, Macou- 
pin, Madison, Montgomery, Piatt, Richland, Tazewell, and 




Fig. 88. Country Children in School 

Williamson counties. The report of the State Board of 
Directors of the Illinois Farmers' Institutes for 1904 
states that about sixty county superintendents of Illinois 
are cooperating with the institute officials. Special men- 
tion by name is made of the county superintendents of 
Alexander, Boone, Crawford, Christian, Dupage, Dekalb, 
Edgar, Fulton, Franklin, Greene, Hancock, Henry, Jack- 
son, Jersey, Johnson, Knox, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Lasalle, 
Marion, Mason, Mercer, McLean, Moultrie, McHenry, 
Ogle, Perry, Pulaski, Peoria, Rock Island, Schuyler, Shelby, 
Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 177 

Superintendent Hall further stated at the Joliet meeting : 

The county superintendents of schools, of whom special mention 
was made in my last report (1904) as zealously cooperating with the 
institute officials, have been no less helpful and efficient in the insti- 
tute work this year. It is through these men and women that we are 
able to reach to some extent the country schools. It is quite within 
reasonable bounds to say that thousands of young people, through 
the efforts of these officials and the superintendents of city schools, 
supported and encouraged by the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, Alfred Bayliss, have this year been brought face to face, 
for the first time, with some of the interesting revelations of the 
hew agriculture. 

At the three days' session of the state institute held at 
Joliet, Illinois, February 21-23, I 9°3> the three evening ses- 
sions were, of an educational character. Of course this was 
true of all other sessions, but these evening sessions were 
devoted more particularly to educational problems of the 
farm and the school. The subjects discussed were as fol- 
lows : What the Country Schools should Offer the Country 
Boy and the Country Girl ; Boys' Clubs and School Gar- 
dens ; The Farm Home ; Education as Related to Useful 
Occupations. There were also lectures illustrated with the 
stereopticon. 

All the above is given to show how the farmers' insti- 
tute is developing as an educational movement. It must 
do that if it is to do any permanent good. The institute 
programme as a means of entertainment — as an imitation 
of the vaudeville — is fast disappearing. If the farmers' 
institute movement is to continue, a class of young people 
must be educated to attend and so become leaders when 
the present leaders pass off the scene of action. In some 
places, where no effort is made to interest the boys and 
girls and young people generally, the officers seem to be 



178 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

controlled by the thought that when they (the officers) die 
all wisdom is to die with them. So the sessions are not 
advertised or the programme thought out, and the attendance 
is made up of two or three dozen retired farmers living in 
the town where the institute is held. The meeting is held 
in a hall that is either cold and poorly lighted, or heated 
red-hot with a smoky stove, and no ventilation. 

The leaders of the farmers' institute movement in the 
United States are quickly realizing the importance of the 
effort to interest boys and girls and the country school- 
teacher in the work of the institutes and in the possibili- 
ties of the new agriculture. Mr. John Hamilton, Farmers' 
Institute Specialist of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, in a recent letter, said : 

I now think that the farmers' institute movement must take hold 
of the country boy and the country girl. We have been dealing with 
the fathers and mothers thus far, which was a necessity until the 
value of the institute was demonstrated ; but we have come now, in 
my opinion, to a time in which it will be possible for us, in many 
states, to go a step further and take hold of the young people who 
are living on the farm. 

Your success in interesting those in your county is proof of the 
practicability of the plan if it is properly organized and enthusi- 
astically conducted. There is no reason why we cannot change the 
whole sentiment of our country in a comparatively few years, if we 
go about it in a systematic way. Agriculture can be made popular 
as well as profitable, if those of us who are interested in country life 
take hold of the work in the right way and present the features that 
appeal to young minds in an attractive way. 

At the boys' session of the Winnebago County Farmers' 
Institute held in 1903 a programme was arranged which 
included reports of experiments by members of the Experi- 
ment Club, and addresses by teachers, school officials, and 
others, the proceedings being enlivened by music. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 



79 



Such was our first programme, and the hall had standing 
room only, and not much of that. The boys' and girls' 
sessions have been crowded ever since. The work described 
by the boys was for 1902, the first year of the boys' club. 
It is worth far more to the reader to know what was said 
that morning than that I should theorize on the value of 
such meetings ; hence I offer no apology for presenting 
here extracts from 
the papers of some 
of the speakers. 
Some of the ad- 
dresses were printed 
in the local press 
and thusj scattered 
over the county. 
The most significant 
ones were printed in 
my annual report 
and sent over the 
county also. Work 
of this character 
needs to be followed 
up till — well, I 
should say, till these 
boys have boys of 
their ozvn. The fault with us at times in movements of 
this character is that we make a great spasmodic effort 
for a year or so and then put on our halos and rest in per- 
fect ecstasies of self-satisfaction. Then the interest dies 
out, and you would never know there had been a revival in 
the county. A good motto is, " Keeping everlastingly at 
it brings success." 




Fig. 89. A Boy at his Desk in an Old- 
Fashioned Country School 



I So AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Following are reports of three boys : 

I 

I grew one-tenth acre sugar beets ; cultivated them four times and 
hoed once, making about two days in all. Yield, seventy-five bushels ; 
sugar, twelve and nine-tenths per cent; purity, eighty and one-half 
per cent. 

Planted seed corn May 12, away from any other corn, about two 
and one-half inches deep, with a drill. I cultivated it with an eight- 
shovel cultivator and went through it with a two-shovel plow once. 
I found about two suckers on each hill of my prize corn. 

I did some of the observation work sent out by the state College 
of Agriculture. The average number of stalks on a plot ten hills 
square was three hundred and eighteen and the number of barren 
stalks was eight; per cent of barren stalks was two. There were 
twelve suckers and eight suckers with ears on, — that is, on the average 
of three tests. It was early yellow corn and was planted three inches 
deep. 

The raising of corn and beets has showed me that corn or any- 
thing else cannot be raised without good cultivation and moisture, to 
make a profitable business. I have learned that corn needs medium 
rich soil, as corn raised on a stony soil will not amount to much with- 
out a good deal of rain. When a boy has a plot of his own and is 
working for a premium he is a great deal more likely to work harder 
on his corn ; and if in the habit of doing his work well, he is going 
to make a better farmer. 

I think work of this kind will make the farmer boy think and 
depend more on himself, as the corn is to be raised by himself. He 
will do it well. I would like to go on and do better work, as I have 
become interested in finding out who does the best work and who 
gets the premiums. . . . 

II 

I learned in cultivating my beets that thorough cultivation is neces- 
sary to get good results. There is not much sugar in beets grown 
in sand, but clay produces a better sugar beet. I found also that a 
beet entirely isolated did not do well at all. I do not find it a very 
profitable business even at six dollars a ton. I also raised forty 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 181 

bushels of carrots from a quarter of a pound of seed, and, carrots 
being worth about four times as much as beets, they are a great deal 
more profitable. 

Ill 

My experimental work began with the testing of seed corn and 
clover seed. My corn tested eighty-two per cent and my clover seed 
tested seventy-five per cent, which I considered a very poor test. 

... I harvested my beets the first week in November and had 
about one hundred and forty-four bushels. I put them in the cellar 
and am feeding them to the cows. They make excellent cow food. 




Fig. 90. Country Children in School 

In my corn experiment I found out that thorough cultivation is 
not all. We must have plenty of moisture and plenty of sunshine to 
insure a crop. It has taught me to observe other farms, — those that 
have been poorly cultivated and those where the cultivation was per- 
fect. I have learned that a clean cultivation is far the best. I have 
found out by testing oats for smut that a large proportion of the oats 
is spoiled in this way. One of our neighbors lost at least a third of 
his crop by smut. This could have been averted by a little treatment 
beforehand. This man had no idea there was any treatment of oats 
for smut. I am greatly in favor of keeping up with the experiments. 
I think I have benefited very much in my last year's experiments. 



182 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The four following papers were read by adults : 

I 

i. I think the better way for the fathers to help along the work 
would be for them to join the boys 1 clubs. 

2. Let them meet with the club once a quarter or oftener and talk 
the work over with the boys. 

3. They can help the work along by furnishing the boys a small 
plot of ground, the best there is on the farm, to carry on experimental 
work. Let the plot be not far from the house, nor in some corner where 
it will be shaded half of the time, but out in the open field where 
the sun will shine on it from sunrise until sundown. 

4. When it comes spring and planting time the fathers can help 
along the work by having one of the boys get the ground ready for 
planting a week before they need to plant and see to it that they get 
it in good order. 

5. The fathers can help the boys along by furnishing them a good 
set of garden tools instead of an old rusty hoe. 

6. The fathers should see to it that the boys have good seed of 
whatever kind they wish to plant, and when they get ready to plant go 
along with the boys and teach them how to successfully plant and 
raise a crop of vegetables or melons or grain, as the case may be. 
Planting the seed is where most of the boys would fail by planting 
them too deep. Show the boys how to hoe and cultivate the crops, 
and the best way to care for them. 

7. Let the boys know that you are interested in what they are doing. 
There is nothing that will encourage a boy so much as to know his 
father is interested in his work. Right here I would say : Don't 
expect too much from the boys at the start, as they have to learn a 
little at a time, as we did years ago. Don't expect that the rows in 
his garden will be straight or that the weeds won't grow there, for 
they will, just the same as they will grow in your garden. 

8. Another way the fathers may help along the work of the boys' 
club is to give the boys the use of one half an acre of ground to cul- 
tivate and care for in their own way. Let them plant whatever they 
think would pay them best, and let them have the proceeds for their 
own individual use. In that way the boys will learn to work, and work 




i8 3 



1 84 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

will become pleasure to them, because they feel that they are earning 
something for themselves. 

II 

The time is not very many years back, certainly not beyond the 
recollection of us older ones, when on these broad and then fertile 
prairies of northern Illinois anybody who could tickle the soil with a 
plow could make it laugh with a harvest. And we, poor simple souls, 
thought it was inexhaustible ; and we burned our straw stacks, send- 
ing up in smoke millions of dollars of fertility that should have been 
returned to the soil. We plowed the little valleys that should have 
remained in grass to keep the soil from washing away, — we plowed 
them and made water courses, and the spring rains took advantage 
of it and carried other millions of dollars' worth of soil down the rivers 
to help fill up the Gulf of Mexico. What have we got for it all ? 

We got some valuable experience. We found we needed agricultural 
colleges, and a farm, and a lot of intelligent men to experiment with 
the soil, with seeds, the various crops, farm' animals, and insect pests. 
We've got them, and they teach us something new every year. . . . 

I think every father should encourage his own boys to join an 
experiment club. Having joined, he should give them every facility 
for carrying out the experiment selected for the club work. Give 
them a good plot of ground. Advise them, but, having done this. 
leave them to work out their own ideas, modified by your advice or 
not as they may think best. He should beget enthusiasm in them by 
being enthusiastic over the experiments himself. 

Let him impress upon them this fact, that no matter whether their 
crop is a good or poor one, their experiment has not been a failure, 
for they have learned something they did not know before. 

When fathers can do so they should offer prizes for the club 
exhibits. Let each offer what he best can, — a lamb, a calf, a pig, in 
fact anything of value to the boys. . . . 



Ill 

Some one has said, "Three things fix a man's value in life, — his 
knowledge, or what he knows ; his ability, or what he can do ; and his 
character, or what he is." The school is intended to help pupils in 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 185 

securing all three. We read books in order to learn what others have 
thought and done before us, but neither knowledge, ability, or char- 
acter comes from books alone. We must also study the men about 
us, that we may learn what others are doing now; and we must study 
the things about us in order to learn how nature works and how we 
must take hold of things if we would succeed. 

You notice what was said, — "We must study the things about us 
if we wish to succeed." Who needs to do that more than the farmer, 
or the boy who intends to become a farmer ? Are we in our district 
schools teaching the boys to study the things about them? We 
should be, if we are striving to keep them on the farm. What could 
better rouse their interest or create a liking for the farm than the 
study of nature, or, as we may call it, the study of agriculture? 

The Boys' Experiment Club, organized about a year ago, has 
begun to do something to interest the boys in farming and farm life. 
Effects of their work can already be seen ; but the boys need encour- 
agement and help in their work, and the district school ought to give 
it. And how can the school do this? The first thing is to get the 
sympathy and interest of the parents ; then their encouragement and 
help ; and every parent ought to be interested and willing to help us 
in this, if he wishes his boy to remain on the farm, be contented with 
farm life, and at the same time make a success of it. 

In order to encourage the boys in their experimental work the 
school should have an experimental garden. Here we can use the 
help of the parents and the directors. They should see to it that 
the ground in some parts of the school yard is plowed or thoroughly 
spaded. The pupils, under the direction of the teacher, would do the 
rest ; they could bring rakes, hoes, and other tools, and carefully 
prepare the soil and plant the seeds. 

In time the seeds would begin to grow and of course the weeds 
also. Then the children could be taught how to keep their garden 
free from weeds. They could learn the names and habits of com- 
mon weeds and the methods of ridding the soil of them, and could 
make experiments similar to those which the boys in the club are 
making. 

Then all along they could be taught the value of tools and the 
proper way of taking care of them. Perhaps if the schools take up 
the study of agriculture in earnest and teach the boys some practical 



i86 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



things, when these boys become the farmers of Winnebago County 
we shall not see, as we go through the country, valuable farm imple- 
ments going to rust and ruin because the farmer is too shiftless or 
careless or ignorant to put them under shelter. 

These are some of the things we propose to teach the boys and 
also the girls of Winnebago County, if the parents and directors will 
first do their duty in the matter. Also the pupils could be taught to 










- ' ■?! 






Fig. 92. A Subject for Consideration at the Farmers' Institute 

take pride in keeping the garden and the whole school yard neat and 
clean. Then when these boys and girls get to be school directors the 
teacher and the pupils will not be obliged to wade through weeds in 
the school yard when they commence school in September, — weeds 
so high that the smaller pupils can hardly see over them. This is 
what some of us have had to do. 

But some will say, "Will not all this interfere with the regular 
work of the school?" It will take time, of course, but is not this as 
important as the regular school work ? What is the use of teaching 
our boys how to compute compound interest if we send them from 
school so ignorant concerning farming that they make a failure of it? 
Then they will not need to know how to compute compound interest. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 



187 



There are some things that can be learned better from experience 
than from books, and those are the things we propose teaching the 
coming farmers of Winnebago County, if parents and directors will 
help us. 

IV 

The degree of a man's success upon the farm depends more on 
himself than on the farm. His intelligence and ambition, the deter- 
mination, energy, the brain as well as the brawn power which he puts 
into his work are the growth of habit, beginning with the primary educa- 
tion of the boy, and 
must necessarily begin 
where the boy begins. 

The fact that the dis- 
trict school is the place 
where the boys begin 
makes it the most im- 
portant factor to build 
up agricultural interest. 
The work at the begin- 
ning must appeal to the 
interest of the boys 
through practical work 
in observing and experi- 
menting with soil, plant 
life, and the farm in 
general. 

The school garden as 
a means to an end has 




a practical bearin< 



Fig. 93. A Subject for Consideration at the 

Farmers' Institute 
agricultural education, 

and is in the reach of every district school at a cost not to be con- 
sidered. How will the boys become practical farmers by working in 
a school garden ? They learn by practical experience how nature 
yields to labor under various conditions ; they learn how to love and 
care for the things that are a source of profit to the farmer and give 
beauty to his home. Industry is the result of this practical work 
which is the propelling power of knowledge. 



1 88 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The schools of Europe are a proof of what the school gardens 
can do for agriculture if placed in the hands of the pupils and their 
teachers. Germany leads the world in practical and profitable methods 
in agriculture, and there the school garden is most highly developed. 

The uncomfortable schoolhouse, the neglected yard growing weeds, 
shadeless and barren, can offer nothing to the farmer boy to inspire, 
to educate, and interest. To improve these conditions is a duty every 
farmer must make his personal interest if life on the farm is to im- 
prove. A little interest, a little work, a little financial help will set 
these silent and practical forces at work to interest the boys upon the 
farm through the district school. From the school the experimental 
club will be recruited. A greater demand for the experimental farm, 
the agricultural school, and the farmers' institute will be the result. . . . 

The programme for the boys' session is varied from year 
to year. The expectation for 1906 is to have reports from 
different members of the club similar to those given above 
for 1903. These reports will be followed by a stereopticon 
address. 

The following is self-explanatory : 

Office of County Superintendent of Schools, 
Rockford, Illinois, December 20, 1904 
To the Schools of Winnebago County : 

It is my wish that there be a close cooperation between the 
schools and the farmers' institute of our county. Teachers may tell 
school officers that I recommend that the schools close on the day of 
the boys' and girls' programme, and that teachers and children attend 
the institute on that day. The directors should give the teachers this 
day without loss of pay. 

Do not forget the date, Thursday, January 12, 1905. Teachers 
will please have children distribute these programmes throughout 
their respective districts. Urge all to go and see the exhibits of corn, 
needlework, and bread, and listen to the speakers. Quite as much 
of an educational value will be acquired by attendance on the boys' 
and girls' day as in an ordinary day's work at school. Let every one 
plan to be present. Sincerely, j Kern 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 189 

The farmers of Winnebago County for the years 1905 
and 1906 believe enough in the boys and girls to give their 
own money for cash prizes without asking the merchants 
of the city of Rockford to give collar buttons, link cuff 
buttons, whips, lap robes, and poultry food. 




Fig. 94. Studying Corn 



Premiums for Winnebago County Boys' Corn-Growing 
Contest 

All Premiums Cash 

First prize Fifteen dollars ($15.00) 

Second prize ,. . Ten dollars ($10.00) 

Third prize Five dollars ($5.00) 

Fourth prize Three dollars ($3.00) 

Fifth prize Two dollars ($2.00) 

Next ten prizes One and one-half dollars ($1.50) each 

Next ten prizes One dollar ($1.00) each 

To all others making an exhibit cash premiums will be awarded at the 
discretion of the Com Comtniitee. 

Note. The three boys taking first, second, and third premiums will be expected 
to write an article for Superintendent Kern after the institute, telling about the 
preparation of seed bed, planting, cultivation, and harvesting of prize corn. 



190 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

CORN SCORE CARD 

(Revised January, 1905) 
Entry No 

County Farmers' Institute 

Scale of Points Scork 

1. Trueness to type 10 

2. Uniformity of exhibit 5 

3. Shape 10 

4. Color 10 

5. Seed condition 10 

6. Tips 5 

7. Butts 5 

S. Kernel uniformity 5 

9. Kernel shape 5 

10. Length of ear 10 

11. Circumference of ear 5 

12. Space between rows 5 

13. Space between kernels at col) 5 

14. Proportion shelled corn to ear 10 

Total ico 



Name and address of exhibitor to be added here after score is made 

Name 

Address 



Standard Measurements 

Length 

Reid's Yellow Dent 10-11 

Learning 10-11 

White Superior 10-11 

Boone County White 10-11 

Riley's Favorite q-10 

Golden Eagle g-10 

Silver Mine 9-10 



Judge 



Circum- 


Propo 


ference 


1 ION 


7X-7K 

7%-S 


88% 
88' i 
88 ! 
88 ■ 


7 -7% 
7K-7X 
7 -7% 


90% 
90% 
90% 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 191 



Measurements for Varieties not named above and for Mixed 

Varieties 

Length Circumference Proportion 

Northern Illinois 9-10 6H-7 & 88% 

Central and southern Illinois .... 10-11 tM-^/a SS% 

In all exhibits made prior to November 15 of each year all standards of length 
and circumference shall be increased one-half inch, and standards of per cent shall 
be reduced two. 

Exhibitors may remove two kernels side by side from the same row at the middle 
of the ear for kernel examination. 

Explanatory 

1. Trueness to type: conforming to variety characteristics in variety classes, 
and to the prevailing type in general classes. 

2. Uniformity of exhibit : uniform in shape, length, and circumference. 

3. Shape : ear cylindrical, with proper proportion of length and circumference. 

4. Color : free from mixture and true to variety color. In judging color a red 
cob in white corn or a white cob in yellow corn shall be cut ten points. For each 
mixed kernel up to five a cut of one fifth of a point shall be made ; for five or more 
mixed kernels, a cut of one point shall be made. Kernels missing from the ear may 
be counted as mixed, at the discretion of the judge. Difference in shade of color of 
grain or of cob shall be scored according to variety characteristics. 

5. Seed condition : ripe, sound, dry, and of strong vitality. 

6. Tips : oval shape and regularly filled out with large dented kernels. 

7. Butts : kernels rounded over the end of cob in regular manner, leaving a 
deep depression when shank is removed. 

8. Kernel uniformity : kernels from the same ear and from the several ears 
uniform in size and shapa. 

9. Kernel shape : kernels deep, wedge-shape, and full at the germ end. 

10. Length : varies with the variety measure. The deficiency and excess in length 
of all ears shall be added together, and for every inch thus obtained a cut of one 
point shall be made. In determining the length measure from the extreme tip to the 
extreme butt. 

11. Circumference : varies with the variety measure. The deficiency and excess in 
circumferences of all ears shall be added together, and for every inch thus obtained 
a cut of one point shall be made. Measure the circumference at one third the distance 
from the butt to the tip. 

12. Space between rows: furrows between rows, and space caused by round 
corners of kernels. 

13. Space at cob: space in row between kernels at cob. To examine for "space 
at cob" take out several kernels near the middle of the ear; then observe the 
kernels of an undisturbed row near the cob. 

14. Proportion : In determining the proportion of corn to cob weigh each alternate 
in the exhibit; shell and weigh the cobs; subtract the weight of the cobs from the 
weight of the ears, thus obtaining the weight of the corn ; divide the weight of the 
shelled corn by the weight of the ears, thus finding the per cent of corn. For each 
per cent short of the standard for variety a cut of one point shall be made. 



192 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The following circular letter was mailed to every member 
of the Boys' Experiment Club : 

Winnebago County Farmers' Institute, 
Rockford, Illinois, April 4, 1905 

To the Members of the Wpnnebago County Farmer Boys' Experi- 
ment Club : 

We are pleased to be able to tell you that at a recent meeting of 
the officers of the Winnebago County Farmers' Institute it was 
decided to have a boys' corn-growing contest again this year, open 

to any boy in the county 
eighteen years of age 
and under, and it was 
also decided to offer all 
premiums in cash. 

Reid's Yellow Dent 
Corn, grown in this 
count}-, will be furnished 
this year by the Winne- 
bago County Farmers' 
Institute, and any boy 
wishing to enter the con- 
test will receive a pack- 
age of seed by writing 
to E. M. Breckenridge, 
County Secretary, Rural 
Route No. 3, Rockford, 
Illinois, inclosing four 
cents in stamps to pay 
postage on the corn. 
Write your name and post-office address very plainly. 
Each boy must write for his own seed. 

The conditions on which the corn is sent and received to be as 
follows. A package of the seed will be presented on condition that 
the boy receiving same shall plant three hundred grains of it in a square, 
with the balance in two rows planted on the south and west sides to 
fertilize and protect the inside rows ; that he will cultivate it and 




Fig. 95. Studying Corr 




Fig. 96. Pure-Bred Cattle 



IP^'yM^a MF\!f5F f^^^H B§"i '» » ; | 



Fig. 97. Studies in Corn 



193 



194 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



harvest it and exhibit not less than ten ears at the Winnebago County 
Farmers' Institute, the ten ears or more for exhibition to be taken 
from the inside square, and nowhere else. It is further agreed by 
the boy receiving this corn that he will comply with the rules gov- 
erning the exhibit of corn at the county institute, and that he will 
attend at least one session of the institute, and that he will follow as 
far as possible the suggestions sent with the package in regard to 
keeping the record of growing the corn. 

Many of you entered the corn-growing contest last year and made 
exhibits at our last county institute, and we hope many more will 
try this year. 

Remember the prizes will all be cash again this year. 

Wishing you a successful year, we are, 

Yours truly, 

W. I. Wells, President 
E. M. Breckenridge, Secretary 

After the corn is sent to the boys who ask for it, the 
following four-page folder is mailed to each boy : 



REPORT OF CORN GROWN 

BY 

Name :...= 

Address 

IN 
BOYS' CORN-GROWING CONTEST 

Winnebago County, 1905 
Corn grown in Township 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 195 

Report of Corn 

(Report to pertain only to the hills in which the three hundred 
grains were planted in the inside square) 

1. Kind of soil 

2. Previous crop on lot 

3. Manure used, if any 

4. Time and depth of plowing 

5. Cultivation of ground before planting 

6. Date when planted 

7. Cultivation before it came up 

8. Date when it came up 

9. Cultivations (times and kind) 



10. Implements used 

11. When laid by 

12. Date of tasseling 

13. Date of silking 

14. Date when gathered 

15. Number of hills 

16. Number of stalks 

17. Number of ears 

18. Number of barren stalks 

19. Total weight at time of gathering... 

20. Injury from cutworms and insects. 



Remark 



196 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Crown 
Starch 



To the Boys of the Winnebago County Corn-Growing Contest : 

Two copies of these report blanks will be mailed to each boy to 
whom seed has been sent by the Winnebago County Farmers' Insti- 
tute. Fill out both blanks just alike, and as carefully and accurately 

as you can. Keep one of the 
reports yourself for future 
reference, and about Decem- 
ber 1 mail the other one to 
the County Secretary, E. M. 
Breckenridge, Rural Route 
No. 3, Rockford, Illinois, 
with a letter about how your 
corn did, and whether or not 
you are going to make an 
exhibit of ten ears at the 
next county institute, which 
we expect to hold January 
16-18, 1906. 

The keeping of this record 
will be of equal value to your- 
self. Don't forget to mail 
one of them to the County 
Secretary next December. 
We expect to be able to 
give a good cash prize to every boy who makes an exhibit of his corn. 
Hoping you will have a very successful year in your work, we are, 




Starch 



Embryo 
Root 



Fig. 98. A Cross Section of a Kernel 
of Corn 



Yours truly, 



E. M. Breckenridge, Secretary 



XV. I. Wells, President 



In 1904 a Girls' Home Culture Club was organized in 
our county, and now numbers three hundred members. 
The Domestic Science Association is expected to take as 
great an interest in this organization as does the farmers' 
institute with the boys. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 197 

Premiums for Home Culture Club (1904) 
Needlework Contest 

The farmers' institute through the Domestic Science Association 
offers the following prizes to the girls of the Home Culture Club for 
sewing, patching, and darning, the work to be all done by exhibitor. 
The prizes in each case will be : first, $r.oo ; second, 50 cents. 

Six prizes for girls of twelve years and under. Six prizes for girls 
from twelve to eighteen years of age, which for each class will be: 

Two, — a first and second for best handkerchief made by hand. 

Two, — a first and second for best setting in a patch in a piece 
of plaid goods. 

Two, — a first and second for best darning a hole not less than 
one inch in diameter in either dress goods or table linen, darning to 
be done with either silk, linen, or cotton thread. 

To the five girls doing the most skillful work, a gentleman offers 
five books, not less than $1.25 each, the girl doing the best work to 
have the first choice, the second best the second choice, and so on. 

Bread-Making Contest 

The Farmers' Institute also offers cash prizes to the girls of the 
Home Culture Club for bread, to be made according to requirements 
stated in a circular letter. Mrs. Mabel Howe Otis of Chicago will 
judge the bread by the Illinois Household Science Score Card. 

For girls twelve years old and under, first prize, $3.00; second, 
$2.00; third, $1.00. 

For girls over twelve and under eighteen, first prize, $3.00 ; second, 
$2.00 ; third, $1 .00. 

In addition to this, the very best loaf exhibited by any girl com- 
plying with requirements will receive a special prize of a Universal 
Bread Machine. 

Bread must be brought in Wednesday, January n, and each loaf ac- 
companied with a written statement of : (1) how it was made ; (2) time 
left to rise ; (3) number of times kneaded ; (4) length of time spent in 
kneading 5(5) how long it was in the oven. Bread must be baked in 
pans approved by the Household Science Department of the University 
of Illinois, which measure nine inches by four inches by four inches. 



198 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



BREAD SCORE CARD 

Flavor 35 points 

Lightness 15 " 

Grain and texture 30 " 

r Color ^ 

Crust < Depth > 5 " 

L. Texture J 

_ , / Color \ 

Crumby T ^ > 5 " 

^ Doughiness J 

™ {s-r } * - 

Moisture 5 " 

100 points 

Directions for Making Bread 

Sift and measure the flour; scald milk and put in bowl ; add salt 
and cold water, then yeast mixed smoothly in warm water; then add 
flour to make a batter and beat until full of bubbles ; gradually add 
more flour; when too stiff to stir rub a little flour on molding board ; 
turn out dough and knead till it does not stick to your hands or 
board and feels elastic ; put back in bowl ; set in a warm place to 
rise about three hours, or until it is twice its original size ; shape into 
a loaf, using little or no flour ; when again light bake fifty or sixty 
minutes ; take out of pan, but do not cover until cold. 

We hope to have three hundred loaves from the three hundred 
Home Culture Club girls, which will count ninety-eight points each, 
and then Winnebago County can be registered as the banner county 
of good bread makers for the state of Illinois. 

Mrs. W. L. Frisbe, President 
Harriet A. Enoch, Secretary 

The ladies of the Domestic Science Association very 
wisely ignored fancy needlework and angel cake. The 
chances are that if a girl can bake good wholesome bread 



COUNTRY SCHOOL AND FARMERS' INSTITUTE 199 

her cakes will be all right ; and to be able to darn well is 
more important than Battenberg. The work for 1904 will 
be continued for 1905. 

I have gone into detail in showing how the country school 
and the farmers' institute can cooperate, and I have done 
this because so many have written me for information with 
reference to specific instructions for doing things. In our 



'[ *' ^ m 


8 


w 1 

1 .- » 


df»ftl 


km<L>^ 


:.- |^^ f 






-- : , .. 


—-- -t:| 







Fig. 99. The Cooking Class, Macdonald Consolidated School, 
Middleton, Nova Scotia, Canada 

traveling libraries I put a number of books for teachers and 
pupils along the line of home, farm, and country-life interests. 
It is far from my purpose to attempt to say how the 
farmers' institute movement can be improved. Abler men 
are at work on that. Valuable bulletins issued by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture at Washington, D.C., are the following : 



Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Associa- 
tion of Farmers' Institute Workers held at St. Louis, Missouri, 
October 18-20, 1904, by W. H. Beal, John Hamilton, and G. C. 
Creelman. 

Annual Report of Farmers' Institutes, 1904, by John Hamilton. 

Farmers' Institutes in the United States, by John Hamilton. 

Farmers' Institutes in the United States, by D. J. Crosby. 



200 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



I will close this chapter by stating that too much must 
not be expected of boys and girls at first. In order to get 
things done one will need to camp on a boy's trail and 
keep after him in a right way. In reading over the plans 
of work given above one must read between the lines to 
realize the constant hard work and earnest thought that 




Fig. ioo. Root Growth of Corn at Time of Tassel 



mg 



are necessary to make plans succeed. I do not pretend to 
say the last word on this subject. There is a great field 
for cooperation of the farmers' institute and the district 
school in the direction of the material, social, moral, and 
intellectual conditions affecting the country school and the 
country child. 



CHAPTER X 

THE NEW AGRICULTURE AND THE COUNTRY 
SCHOOL 

What place ought agriculture to have in the district 
school, and what kind of agriculture ought it to be ? The 
following quotation from a prominent agricultural journal 
pretty nearly sizes up the situation : 

Enough spasmodic theorization on teaching practical agriculture 
and aesthetic nature study has been expended to pay off the national 
debt. Let 'us pass into the next stage of the argument and get down 
to ways and means. If our children are to receive elementary instruc- 
tion in chemistry, soil, physics, vegetable life, biology, botany, and all 
the rest of the list, some one must teach them. How many of them 
are really capable of teaching anything beyond the " a-b, ab's " with 
their hands tied behind them ? It is not enough that a teacher may 
call up the class in geography and perfunctorily conduct a recitation 
with her eyes glued to a book. A teacher should inspire pupils with a 
love of study. She should make the recitation interesting. All this 
applies not only to the teaching of agriculture but to all branches 
taught in the country school, and serves to emphasize the need of 
adopting the central or township system. It is very difficult for any 
teacher to develop the proper interest and enthusiasm in the work of 
any branch with only an attendance of two or three pupils. On the 
other hand, it is a great waste to employ good teachers for only two 
or three students when they can better instruct several times that 
number. When the centralized plan is adopted it will be possible 
with the same outlay to supply a much better class of instruction in 
all branches. 

Now an attempt will be made in subsequent chapters to 
discuss the small school, consolidation or centralization, and 



202 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

the preparation of country teachers to meet the demands of 
a new education for the country child. In this chapter the 
first two sentences of the above quotation will be considered, 
especially the second, namely : " Let us pass into the next 
stage of the argument and get down to ways and means." 

The writer is of the opinion that, so far as one county is 
concerned (and there are others), the work as set forth in 
the chapters on School Gardens, A Farmer Boys' Experi- 
ment Club, Educational Excursions, and The Country School 
and the Farmers' Institute in this book does bear some 
relation to getting " down to ways and means," and shows a 
corresponding departure from " spasmodic theorization on 
teaching practical agriculture." The writer claims further 
that what has been said in those chapters is also " practical 
agriculture." He cherishes a hope that the same may be said 
of this and subsequent chapters on to the end of his story. 

In the account of school gardens, boys' clubs, excursions, 
and the like, so far as this has any relation to the work of 
the district schools as they noiv are, nothing is said about 
pupils working with gang plows, harrows, and binders, or 
about silos, creameries, and separators. In short, nothing 
is said claiming that children in the country school should 
enter upon farm operations and raise crops to an extent that 
would make the teacher and pupils a very serious factor in 
crop production. . It is at this point that there is much mis- 
understanding on the part of many farmers. They claim 
that they are able to "learn" their boys how to plow, and 
the mothers are equally confident of their ability to " learn " 
the girls how to sew and cook. What they want, they say, 
in the country school is some one to teach the " three R's, 
with plenty of time on 'rithmetic and spellin', like when we 
went to the district school forty years ago." 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



203 



Now I firmly believe in the fundamentals, but my belief 
in them has not yet led me to an exclusive worship of them 
to the exclusion of other important educative material pecul- 
iar to the environment of the country child. This is a new 
scientific age of agriculture, and to meet the demands of a 
new age for the farmer 
with reference to two 
items only — the devel- 
opment of high-bred corn 
and the maintenance of 
soil fertility — better 
methods must come as 
the result of better edu- 
cation somewhere. It 
is just as reasonable to 
claim that, if the school 
of forty years ago with 
its curriculum then was 
all-sufficient and people 
were happy, and strong 
characters came from the 
country schools, so can 
the farmers get along 
without telephones, 
delivery of mail, self- 
binders, and other improvements. Then no one dreamed 
of soil exhaustion, and the good old times were the best. 

Northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are great dairy 
regions. Now I suppose many people have the idea that if 
the country school is to teach agriculture for this particular 
region and an effort is made to put the country child into 
a sympathetic and intelligent relation to his environment, 




Fig. ioi. Corn and Soy Beans on Experi- 
ment Field, Winnebago County, Illinois 



204 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

the school officers must keep a cow on the school grounds ; 
and when the time comes for the exercise in agriculture the 
teacher must take the children out to the cow and give 
instruction in milking, corralling the cow, etc. No ; the 
children will learn how to milk at home. But if the very 
valuable bulletins from either the Illinois or Wisconsin ex- 
periment stations on the dairy cow were in the schoolroom, 
the children might acquire some useful knowledge about 
such a common thing as a cow that would go just as far in 
making a useful farmer and an intelligent citizen as what 
children in the country schools are learning about the kan- 
garoo and the cockatoo. But the cow and the hen as 
subjects of study — perish the thought! And yet, with 
reference to the American hen the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture in his report for 1904 says : 

The farmers' hens are now producing one and two-thirds billions of 
dozens of eggs yearly, and these hens during their busy season lay 
enough eggs in two weeks, at the high prices of eggs that have pre- 
vailed during the year, to pay the year's interest on the national debt. 

In my judgment the most important of the " ways and 
means " asked for by the editor quoted above is some move- 
ment that will change the ideals of the great mass of the 
country people with reference to education. The argument 
must appeal to the farmer from his own point of view. And 
this argument (too largely at present this is true) must be 
a dollars-and-cents one. Will it pay ? How much will it cost ? 
The schoolmaster will have to learn how to meet the people 
on their own ground. 

Hodge, in Nature Study and Life, states a great truth 
when he says : 

Cultivation of plants has indicated and developed elements of 
character fundamental to civilized life. Willingness to work for daily 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



205 



bread, intelligent provision for the future, courage to fight for home, 
love of country, are a few among the virtues attained. When we 
consider its universal and fundamental character, the omission of 
soil lore from a system of education for the young is suggestive of a 
relapse to barbarism. 

The average farmer, however, at this stage of the game 
is quite willing to risk the ''relapse to barbarism." What 
he wants to know is, Will it pay ? If educators can show 
him that a study of high-bred corn and soil will bring 
substantial returns, he is willing to spend more money on 




Fig. 102. Soy Beans on Experiment Field, Winnebago County, 
Illinois 



the country school and spend it in a better way. This put- 
ting of an educational system on so low a basis is highly 
repugnant to the "educator " who cherishes lofty ideals of 
"culture," "educational processes," "periods of adolescence," 
etc. But some of us who work in an atmosphere of real 
life in the fields have to meet conditions as we find them. 

The following is a part of an address by Dean Bailey of 
Cornell to a body of New York farmers : 

If there are one million people in New York State who are en- 
gaged in agriculture, and if that one million people must be lifted up 
into a newer and better life, then why not put before them knowledge 



206 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

of the subjects with which they have to do day by day, and put those 
subjects into such pedagogical form that they may be made the means 
of training the minds of the young people as well as giving them 
information ? 

It is interesting to observe how little relation the common schools 
have to the lives that men lead. The curriculum of our common 
schools is made from the curricula of our old universities and acade- 
mies, made simple, and let down to the people. 

In the beginning we must fasten the children's affections on the 
region in which they are. We must teach them the common things 
with which they live from day to day. That is the new idea in nature 
study that is coming gradually into our schools. If any one of you 
gentlemen were to be put into a new community, where you never had 
been, and where there was no school, and were asked to make a cur- 
riculum for a school, without thinking about it or being conscious of it, 
you would put into that school something having relation to that 
vicinity, to the soil and the animals, and those things with which that 
community had to do. 

The common school is undergoing evolution, and gradually its 
point of view is being changed. The West, not fettered by tradition 
as we are in the East, is putting agriculture into its common schools, 
as has the South, having thrown off its old ecclesiastical traditions ; 
and recently one little book along this line has sold in the South to 
the extent, it is reported, of fifty thousand copies. Up from the South 
and back from the West it is coming also into the East ; and I pre- 
dict that in the next ten years we shall see a tremendous revolution in 
the attitude of the common schools towards education. 

In my humble opinion there has been no more important 
document issued by the National Educational Association 
than the Report of the Committee on Industrial Education 
for the Country Communities, July, 1905. The make-up of 
this important committee is this: Superintendent L. D. Har- 
vey, Menomonie, Wisconsin, chairman ; Dean L. H. Bailey, 
College of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York ; State Super- 
intendent Alfred Bayliss, Illinois ; State Superintendent 
W. T. Carrington, Missouri ; and Honorable W. M. Hays, 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 20J 

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. This 
committee has been at work two years and has been con- 
tinued for further investigation. This pamphlet should be 
widely read and discussed by country teachers, school offi- 
cers, and members of farmers' institutes. One quotation 
here will indicate somewhat its importance : 

This committee does not hesitate to say that in its judgment the 
country schools, which train nearly one half of the school population 
of this country so far as school training goes, should definitely recog- 
nize the fact that the major portion of those being trained will con- 
tinue to live upon the farm; and that there should be specific, definite, 
technical training fitting them for the activities of farm life. Such 
schools will not make farmers nor housekeepers, but they will interest 
the boys and girls in farming and housekeeping and the problems 
connected with these two important vocations. 

After two years' work with school gardens, excursions, 
experimental club work, lectures, and instruction at teachers' 
annual institutes, and farmers' institutes as well, it seemed 
wise to us in Winnebago County to make use of one more 
"ways and means" of teaching "practical agriculture." 
At least, this might serve as a means to induce teachers, 
school officers, and patrons to change their opinion as to 
the new agriculture and the possibility of elementary in- 
struction in the country school. For if we sit down and 
wait till teachers are trained or schools properly organized, 
nothing will ever be done. But a start can be made and 
the public sentiment educated to the possibilities of instruc- 
tion in elementary agriculture. This last effort, beginning 
September, 1904, was to put the principal bulletins from 
the Illinois Experiment Station and the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington on the reading table or in the 
school library of the one hundred and sixteen school dis- 
tricts in the county outside of Rockford. The summary 



208 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

of the year's work, as taken from personal reports from 
teachers, gives for the year ending June 30, 1905, a total 
of eighteen hundred bulletins so placed. Of this number, 
one thousand are from the Illinois Station at Urbana and 
eight hundred from the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington. 

The following are the principal ones from Illinois : 

No. 66, Corn Experiments in Illinois. 

No. 76, Alfalfa on Illinois Soil. 

No. 82, Methods of Corn Breeding. 

No. 87, Structure of the Corn Kernel and the Composition of its 

Different Parts. 
No. 94, Nitrogen Bacteria and Legumes. 
No. 95, The More Important Insect Injuries to Indian Corn. 
No. 96, The Testing, of Corn for Seed. 

These are not all of the important bulletins issued by the 
Station, but they include the more important ones on corn 
and soil. 

From the Department of Agriculture at Washington : 

No. 79, Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1904: Circular, Soil 
Survey, with map of Winnebago County, Illinois. 

No. 134, Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds. 

No. 94, The Vegetable Garden. 

No. 173, Primer of Forestry. 

No. 60, The Teaching of Agriculture in the Rural Common 
Schools. 

No. 218, The School Garden. 

No. 185, Beautifying the Home Grounds. 

The expectation is to read and discuss some of the more 
important of these bulletins during the coming year in the 
teachers' institutes. Our country school-teachers need to 
know something of the great work going on at our higher 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



209 



institutions of agricultural instruction and investigation. 
The great majority of the country school-teachers are 
entirely unacquainted with the publications issued by these 
institutions. These bulletins, as a rule, are free, and a 
postal card will put one's name on the permanent mailing 
list of the state college and station. Through the teacher 
in the country school we hope to get the older pupils inter- 
ested, and through the school the home. Thus this becomes 
an agent in assisting the farmers' institutes, the educational 
excursions, and the 
young people's clubs 
to bring about a 
different ideal with 
reference to the 
country school. 

But the reader 
may say, "I don't 
live in Illinois, and 
we are not interested 
in corn or soil in- 
vestigations in our 
state." Very well. 
Put yourself in touch 
with your own state 
College and Experiment Station, and find out what they are 
doing along the line of the particular crops peculiar to your 
state. The corn crop is the first in value in the United 
States, with cotton second, and hay or wheat third. Because 
of the writer's being on the list of speakers for the farmers' 
institutes of Illinois, as selected by the State Board of 
Directors, there are sent him, through Mr. John Hamilton, 
Farmers' Institute Specialist, Department of Agriculture, 




Fig. 103. A Traveling Library for District Schools 
Works on Agriculture and Country Life 



2IO AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Washington, D.C., bulletins from the Department and from 
all the principal state experiment stations. There is a great 
work being done for the farmer. The immediate problem is 
how to get the average country school-teacher acquainted 
with some of this work. If there is sufficient demand, I have 
no doubt that each state College of Agriculture will organize 
an Agricultural College Extension Department to help the 
teacher and children in the country schools. Illinois has 
had such a department for three years, and a most valuable 
factor it is, too. New York has one, and Ohio begins one 
with Superintendent A. B. Graham of Springfield as first 
superintendent. No doubt other states have a like depart- 
ment or will soon have one. 

Besides the literature in the way of bulletins, our teachers, 
children, and farmers in general for the past two years have 
had the pleasure of hearing the following lectures, and all 
without any charge : 

Corn Growing : Professor P. G. Holden, College of Agriculture, 

Ames, Iowa. 
The Kind of School for Country People : Dean Eugene Davenport, 

College of Agriculture, Urbana, Illinois. 
Birds and Their Benefit to the Farmer: stereopticon lecture by Ned 

Dearborn, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, Illinois. 
Industrial Education for Country Communities : Superintendent 

L. D. Harvey, Menomonie, Wisconsin. 
School Gardens: stereopticon lecture by Professor H. D. Hemenway, 

Hartford, Connecticut. 
School Gardens : stereopticon lecture by Dick Crosby, Department 

of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 
The Farm, Home, and School : stereopticon lecture by Assistant 

County Superintendent C. W. Farr, Chicago, Illinois. 
The Newest Things in Agriculture : stereopticon lecture by Principal 

K. C. Davis, Dunn County School of Agriculture, Menomonie, 

Wisconsin. 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 211 

Lest the reader may conclude that ordinary school prob- 
lems are lost sight of, I give the following list of lectures 
given not on the same days as above but during the same 
period of two years : 

Literature : Superintendent N. D. Gilbert, Head of Practice School, 
Northern Illinois Normal, Dekalb. 

Eighth Grade Arithmetic : Professor George Howe, Normal Uni- 
versity, Normal, Illinois. 

Unwritten School Law : President David Felmley, Normal Uni- 
versity, Normal, Illinois. 

The Requirements of a Modern Teacher : Dr. John W. Cook, 
President of Northern Illinois Normal School and ex-President 
of the National Educational Association. 

Arithmetic : Professor Frank Hall, Superintendent of Farmers' 
Institutes, Aurora, Illinois. 

The Meaning and Scope of Education : Professor John Keith, 
Northern Illinois Normal, Dekalb. 

Seventh-Grade History : Professor Edward Page, Northern Illinois 
Normal, Dekalb. 

The Relation of Reading to Life : Superintendent W. L. Crane, 
Marshalltown, Iowa. 

No ; the Winnebago County teachers are not devoting 
their entire time to corn. Many other things are discussed 
at the monthly teachers' meetings and at the annual insti- 
tutes, and we still try to teach the fundamentals, as the 
subjects of two of the above lectures show, namely, reading 
and arithmetic. 

In addition to bulletins from the Experiment Station an 
excellent text-book on agriculture was put on the teachers' 
reading course for Winnebago County. This book was read, 
and in many schools portions of it were discussed by teachers 
with the pupils. The book is Agriculture for Beginners, by 
Burkett, Stevens, and Hill ; it will be continued on our 
reading list for 1905 -1906. Bailey's The Nature Study 



212 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Idea and Hemen way's How to Make a School Garden 
have been read by the teachers for the past two years. 

In the seventy-three district-school traveling libraries 
there are books on elementary agriculture, trees, flowers, 
etc., and country life in general. In this way pupils, 
teachers, and parents, the school and the home, come in 
contact with the best of books. The following is a partial 
list. The numbers refer to the number of volumes in the 
seventy-three traveling libraries. 

17 Burkett, Stevens, and Hill's Agriculture for Beginners. 
4 bound volumes of Country Life in America (1903-1904). 
6 Ely's A Woman's Hardy Garden. 
3 Henry's Feeds and Feeding. 

1 Miller's Children's Gardens. 

3 Liggett and Hayes's Rural School Agriculture. 

3 bound volumes of Review of Reviews (October, 1903-July, 1904). 

2 Sever's Elements of Agriculture. 
2 Sargent's Corn Plants. 

6 bound volumes of The World's Work (St. Louis Exposition 
number). 

4 bound volumes of The World's Work (August, 1903-July, 1904). 
20 Bailey's The Nature Study Idea. 

1 Blanchan's Nature's Garden. 
6 Bailey's Plant Breeding. 

20 Hemenway's How to Make a School Garden. 

4 Roth's First Book of Forestry. 

5 Rogers's Among Green Trees. 

2 Thompson's My Winter Garden. 

5 bound volumes of The World's Work (November, 1900-April, 

I903)- 

6 Bradish's Stories of Country Life. 

3 Bailey's Garden Making. 

4 Maynard's Landscape Gardening as Applied to Home Deco- 
ration. 

7 Shepard's Life on the Farm. 
7 Stokes's Ten Common Trees. 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 213 

3 Smith's Jolly Good Times on the Farm. 
6 Weed's Seed-Travellers. 

20 Ball's Plant Life. 
20 Ball's Animal Life. 

4 James's Practical Agriculture. 

6 bound volumes of The World's Work (August, 1904-July, 1905). 

6 bound volumes of Review of Reviews (August, 1904-July, 1905). 
12 bound volumes of Country Life in America (August, 1904-July, 
1905). 

24 bound volumes of The World's Work, " The Wonderful North- 
west " (Lewis and Clark Exposition number, August, 1905). 
10 Eggett's The School and the Farm. 

1 McFarland's Getting Acquainted with Trees. 

1 King's The Soil. 

1 Powell's The Country Home. 

The above list of books in traveling libraries, with bulle- 
tins frorri experiment stations and the literature sent to 
children and teachers of our county by the Extension 
Department of the Illinois College of Agriculture, seems 
to me to be a departure from " spasmodic theorization on 
teaching practical agriculture," and an attempt to " pass 
into the next stage of the argument." We are trying to 
educate the teachers as well as the pupils. It is one thing 
to have books and bulletins and another thing to read them. 
The readings and discussions will be taken care of during 
the year at the monthly and annual teachers' institutes. I 
attend every one of these and help along the programmes. 
Everybody is busy. 

In 1904 the sum of ten million dollars was spent in the 
United States by the Department of Agriculture and the 
various state agricultural colleges and experiment stations 
in the interest of higher education for the American farmer. 
It is money well expended. I spent nearly two months at 
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis trying to 



214 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



find out something about two things: (i) what is being 
done in the United States in the way of higher education 
for the farmer, and (2) what is being done to improve the 
country school, the place where all the elementary educa- 
tion, so far as schooling goes, is given to ninety-five per 
cent of the farmers' children. A study of the exhibits of 

the various experiment 
stations in the Palace 
of Education gave but 
a faint idea of the won- 
derful development of 
the science of agricul- 
ture, but the Palace of 
A g r ic ult u r e re v ealed 
some of the results. The 
country-school exhibits 
in the various state edu- 
cational displays were 
not very extensive, but 
e n o u g h w a s g i v e n t o 
show that an earnest 
attempt is being made 
in several states to ad- 
just the country school 
to the new agriculture 
and the new country life. Naturally the educational exhibits 
of great centers of population received most attention from 
the press, but the fact remains that nearly one half of the 
school population of the United States is being trained in 
the one-room country schools, whence will come the leaders 
of a great to-morrow in all lines of activity. At least ninety 
per cent of these pupils in the one-room country schools 




Fig. 104. An Exhibit of Corn and Oats 
at the St. Louis Exposition 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 215 

will remain on the farm and engage in a business that is 
the foundation of the world's prosperity, the importance 
of which can better be judged from the following state- 
ment by Secretary James Wilson in his Report of the De- 
partment of Agriculture for 1904: 

An occupation that has produced such an unthinkable value as 
one aggregating nearly $5,000,000,000 within a year may be better 
measured by some comparisons. All of the gold mines of the entire 
world have not produced since Columbus discovered America a 
greater value of gold than the farmers of this country have produced 
in wealth in two years. This year's (1904) produce is over six times 
the amount of the capital stock of all national banks ; it comes within 
three fourths of a billion dollars of equaling the value of the manu- 
facturers of 1900, less the cost of materials used ; it is twice the sum 
of our exports and imports for a year ; it is two and a half times the 
gross earnirigs from the operation of the railways ; it is three and a 
half times the value of all minerals produced in this country, including 
coal, iron ore, gold, silver, and quarried stone. 

The efficiency of the country school must be increased 
in order to give the proper training to fit boys and girls 
to handle this immense business. 

The state of Illinois, by appropriation of the legislature 
for the next two years, is expending annually the following 
amounts in the interests of higher agricultural education 
for the Illinois farmers : 

College of Agriculture $50,000 

Live-stock investigations 25,000 

Corn, wheat, oats, and clover 15,000 

Soil investigations 25,000 

Orchard investigations 15,000 

Dairy investigations 15,000 

Total $145,000 

And this money is well spent, as the results already show. 



216 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Mention was made in the chapter on Educational Excur- 
sions of the great work of Professor Hopkins in corn breed- 
ing at the Illinois Experiment Station. A study of his 
report and an inspection of the exhibit at St. Louis in the 
Palace of Agriculture is sufficient reason, I think, to main- 
tain that the organization of a Boys' Experiment Club to 
grow high-bred corn, educational excursions to the Experi- 
ment Station, stereopticon lectures on corn at teachers' 
and farmers' institutes, and bulletins on corn studied by 
teachers and pupils, are all " ways and means " leading to 
the "teaching of practical agriculture." At least, work of 
this character will help to modify the viewpoint of the 
farmers with reference to the country school ; and this is 
the most important thing now. 

Mr. E. E. Chester, President of the Illinois Corn Growers' 
Association, reports as follows about the corn growers of 
Illinois : 

The Corn Growers' Association has for its object the very careful 
and systematic selection of seed corn, and with this in view it has 
developed a system of measuring the good and bad features of corn, 
using this rule in their corn schools and in the selection of prize corn 
in corn shows. 

The Corn Breeders' Association has for its object the increase of 
the yield per acre by breeding only from corn that has given a high 
yield, thus establishing an inherited potency towards increase in yield. 

The rule for the Corn Growers' Association is the score 
card given in Chapter IX, page 190. 

A large part of the twenty-five-thousand-acre farm of the 
Funk Brothers, in the richest portion of the corn belt of 
Illinois, is used for breeding plots in the production of high 
types of corn. Following is a single illustration showing the 
increase of yield per acre. On the Funk farm the 1902 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



217 



breeding block record for ear No. 99, planted in a single 
row, showed a rate of yield of eighty bushels per acre of 
seventy pounds of corn, while the multiplying record for 
1903, planted in five-acre plots, showed that plot No. 10, 
planted from the progeny of ear No. 99, yielded at the rate 
of ninety-nine and one-half bushels per acre of the same 
weight of corn. The boy of the Winnebago County Farmer 
Boys' Experiment Club 
who won first prize in 
the corn contest of 1903 
had a plot of corn which 
yielded at the rate of 
one hundred and twenty- 
five bushels per acre, 
while several others had 
plots that approached 
closely the hundred- 
bushel mark. These 
boys will be the farmers 
of the future and will 
raise greater crops than 
their fathers. The finan- 
cial gains to the country 
at large will be measured 
by millions of dollars. 

The study of soil has begun in a practical way. In 1903 
two experts from the Bureau of Soils, Washington, D.C., 
and three men from the Illinois Experiment Station spent 
several weeks in our county making a soil survey, noting 
every type of soil as small in area as a ten-acre lot. A valu- 
able bulletin, with a map in various colors showing differ- 
ent types of soil, has been published and a copy put into 




Fig. 105. A Little Literary Man 
studying Corn 



2i8 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

every country school of Winnebago County. This map, with 
the soil.bulletins issued by the Illinois station, supplemented 
by school garden work, will make a beginning. To be sure, 
the results will not be as valuable as they would be if the 
teacher had some knowledge of soil physics, but it is a begin- 
ning. If we wait till all things are ideal, nothing will be 
accomplished. Illinois is spending twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars per year in soil investigations. About twelve counties 
thus far are surveyed, and the expectation is that the good 
work will continue till every county in the state has a soil 
survey. This will take eight or ten years more. 

I have tried to show the possibilities and practical ways 
of beginning the study of plant life and soil. The same will 
hold true with reference to fruit and dairy interests in vari- 
ous sections of the state. Southern Illinois is developing a 
great fruit industry. The state appropriates fifteen thou- 
sand dollars annually for orchard investigations, and a new 
horticultural building has been erected on the experimental 
farm at Urbana. Bulletin No. 98, "The Curculio and the 
Apple," is a valuable one-hundred-page pamphlet fully illus- 
trated with several colored plates. This should find its 
way into the country-school libraries of southern Illinois, 
or of any part of the state for that matter. 

So for animal life on the farm. Illinois is expending, 
under the direction of the College of Agriculture and Exper- 
iment Station, the sum of forty thousand dollars on dairy 
and live-stock investigations. New buildings have been 
erected for these departments on the farm at Urbana. 
To-day's mail brings all the latest bulletins issued by the 
Extension Department under direction of Superintendent 
Fred Rankin. The title of one is, "Testing Milk on the 
Farm, — Suggestions for Young People's Experimental 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 219 

Clubs and Instruction in Agriculture in Public Schools." 
Circular No. 84 is " Records of Dairy Herds " in northern 
Illinois, by Arthur G. Glover, a field man connected with 
the Dairy Department of the college. Bulletin No. 10 1 
is " Crops for the Silo," etc. Bulletin No. 102 is on the 
" Construction of Silos." If the teacher will but take the 
trouble to write a postal card and have her name put on 
the mailing list of the state Agricultural College and Experi- 
ment Station, she will receive the various publications as 
issued. This is the first step towards "ways and means." 
With respect to the bulletins of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Secretary Wilson says: "The vast 
majority of teachers in rural schools throughout the country 
are unacquainted with the work and publications of this 
department, and do not understand how these publications 
might be utilized for instruction in subjects related to 
agriculture." This is true with respect to the work and 
publications of the various states. 

Just how the particular bulletin will be used in the work 
of the country school depends upon a great many different 
things. This is a fertile field for discussion in the local 
teachers' meetings and the annual institute. 

The following is an editorial which appeared in the 
Prairie Farmer (Chicago), July 13, 1905 : 

" Fads " in the School 

Mayor McClellan, of New York City, took an extreme view of the 
situation when he condemned industrial education without reserva- 
tion on the Fourth before the National Educational Association. It 
seems morally certain that neither the educator nor the general public 
possesses a clear-cut idea of the turning point between what may be 
called legitimate manual training and the "fad." Doubtless Mayor 



220 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

McClellan was as much wrong when he dubbed manual training as 
a " get-wise-quick " scheme as was Commissioner Draper, of New 
York, when he branded the " three R's " as the plan of education that 
" tended to create a peasant class." 

There is a middle ground between both extremes. We believe 
that the hand as well as the intellect should be educated, but it will 
be unwise to endeavor to develop -one at the expense of the other. 

The farmer is facing a form of manual training when the educator 
advises him to institute the study of agriculture and domestic science 
in the rural school. The Prairie Farmer is in full sympathy with 
both when properly applied, but we hope that the educator will be 
wise enough to fit the school for either of these innovations rather 
than attempt to fit them to the school. It is certain that if the edu- 
cator is not wise and cautious in his progress, his systems for improve- 
ment will be kicked out as a " fad." Manual training needs sympathy 
rather than antagonism. 

Many of our city schools have taken up manual training with entire 
success ; others, like New York, have maintained their work only after 
most serious opposition. Obviously the former course is preferable. 
It would seem that if there be any explanation, it is simply that sane 
conservative direction forestalls the faddish criticism. 

I quote the entire editorial for the sake of part of one sen- 
tence, with brief comment. The editor says, " But we hope 
that the educator will be wise enough to fit the school for 
either of these innovations rather than attempt to fit them 
to the school." So say we all of us. But the country-school 
educator in his attempt " to fit the school " for agricul- 
ture must have assistance from the public press in mold- 
ing public opinion. The country school belongs to the 
farmers, and the farmers must move. Somebody must " fit 
them " to the new agriculture instead of trying " to fit " the 
new science to the farmer ; but if we all wait till the " fit " is 
perfect in all details, many generations must pass away 
before the country child is allowed to find any inspiration 
in his environment. 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



221 



The public conscience out in the field needs to be aroused 
with reference to the country school. One prophet will 
arise who will declare on public occasions that the country 
school is all that it should be ; that it is the palladium of 
our liberties, whatever that may mean ; that all the great 
and good men in the history of our country came from the 
country districts ; why should you wish to add anything to 
a system of training 
that produced a Lin- 
coln or a Garfield ? 
" If elected, I will 
— " etc., etc. And 
his reward is imme- 
diate and abundant. 
His halo rivals one 
of the rings of Sat- 
urn and can be felt 
a great distance. 

Another prophet 
finds nothing good 
in the existing order 
of things. The coun- 
try school costs too 
much ; taxes are too high ; consolidation is a fad ; it would 
take all the horses of the state to get the children to the 
school ; close the country schools and send the children to 
town, etc., etc. He has his reward also, but his halo is 
characterized by the diminuendo. 

A third man, not gifted with prophecy or with wisdom 
perhaps above the ordinary, believes in publicity with refer- 
ence to the country school, — believes in taking the lid off 
and seeing things as they are. He would give credit where 




Fig. 106. The Teacher's Corner in an Old- 
Fashioned Country Schoolhouse 



222 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

credit is due, censure when censure is deserved ; then sanely 
and courageously would he set about "to fit " the country 
school to the new conditions of country life. He holds to 
this as the sheet anchor, namely: "The farmers can't get 
something for nothing in the way of better schools. If they 
would have better schools, they must expend more money 
in a better way." There is no halo coming. 

We need a general campaign for an educational uplift, 
to increase the usefulness of the country school. 

In some states, it is true, an effort is being made "to 
fit" the country school to the new agriculture. I close this 
chapter with a part of the address delivered at the dedica- 
tion of the first consolidated country school in Illinois, in 
Seward Township, Winnebago County, January 30, 1904. 
The address was delivered by Eugene Davenport, Dean of 
the Illinois College of Agriculture and Director of the 
Experiment Station. His subject was "The Consolidated 
Country School and the New Agriculture." 

The consolidated country school is the only plan proposed that 
will keep intact the country home, educate the child within the envi- 
ronment in which he is growing up, and make him the intellectual 
equal of his city cousin. Any plan short of this is not only unjust to 
the individual, but it is disastrous to country life and to sound ideas 
touching the productive industries and the life of industrial people. 
Any plan that secures these educational advantages at the expense 
of the integrity of the home costs more than it comes to and leaves 
the family worse than it found it, because it uprooted it out of the 
country without planting it in the city, and henceforth it partakes of 
the life of neither. All this is bad enough for the family and the 
individual, but the damage does not end here. 

There is an industrial side to this problem that is worth consider- 
ing. The "new agriculture" means new conditions not only in the 
business but as to the people who follow it. The principles under- 
lying agricultural practice are coming to be better known, and farming 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 223 

is growing constantly more difficult. The business is no longer limited 
to sowing and reaping and selling. Now things must be done with a 
view not only to economic production but also to sustaining fertility, 
to the end that the producing power of land shall not grow less, and 
we one day shall not find ourselves in the condition of modern Russia, 
— on the verge of starvation and in the throes of poverty, though 
inhabiting the best lands on earth. Yes, truly, agriculture considered 
from the modern standards is growing more difficult and will never 
be less so, for we do not intend in this country to trust the conserva- 
tion of fertility, which is our natural life, to ignorant and untrained 
people. Agriculture is no calling now for the grossly incompetent or 
the hopelessly ignorant. It will never be better suited to the man 
of low capacity than it is to-day; on the contrary, it will constantly 
demand more of him, and public policy will encourage that demand. 

Accordingly our people must be educated, — educated not only as 
individuals and American citizens, but educated as farmers, not a few 
of them, but a lot of them ; not here and there one that has escaped, 
as from bondage somewhere, but whole communities of people, men 
and women together, bent not only upon getting the most out of our 
lands but also upon getting the most out of country life, by founding 
and maintaining homes wherein good men of the future may find a 
place in which to be born. 

All this can never be done by the present system of weak and 
isolated country schools, not even with an agricultural college in con- 
nection; neither can it be done indirectly by making use of the city 
schools for this purpose. City schools teach city life and the facts 
and atmosphere that go with city life. If we are to have a healthy 
country life and a normal country people, we must organize schools 
to teach country life and the facts of country life. 

All people should be educated in two environments and from two 
standpoints. One is the world at large, — general and broadening ; 
the other is that in which his life has unfolded and his individuality 
developed, and in which in all likelihood his future will be cast. The 
only sufficient reason for changing one's environment at the school 
age is the certainty that the future calling is to be different from that 
of the family, and then something of educational value has been lost 
if the transplanting has taken place too early. It is better not to turn 
the back upon the things of childhood until we can look out upon the 



224 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

world through the eyes of a man. The consolidated school is the 
only solution for the educational necessities of country people. 

This new agriculture, therefore, demands three new achievements 
in the way of education. One is a better training in the technique of 
the profession in order to make the best fanners possible of the indi- 
viduals who occupy our lands ; the second is that this education shall 
be secured without disrupting the country home; and the third is that 
when it is over the product shall be a normal country child, to the 
end that if he remains in the country he will make a good country- 
man ; and that if he later goes to the city, he goes intelligently and 
for a purpose, in which cass he will make a good citizen. 

1 hope now that you will meet these needs by doing the natural 
thing ; and what I mean is this, — 1 hope that this will not be a city 
school transplanted into a cornfield. I hope it will be a country 
school surrounded by all that will make it attractive, — yes, beauti- 
ful, and filled with all that will make it effective. 

Why should this not be a city school? Is not a city school as 
good as a country school? Yes, for city people; but a city school 
for country people is as far from what is best as would be a country 
school for city people. It is not that one is better than the other, but 
it is that they an- different. The city school has been long develop- 
ing, and it is to be assumed that it has come to meet fairly well the 
conditions and needs of city people. Now the conditions and needs 
of country people are not less and they are not greater, but they are 
different. I would, therefore, have in such a school a good portion of 
agriculture, shop practice, household ails, and of science in general. 
Why? Because these are specially characteristic of country life. 
Some of them are also characteristic of city life, some of them are 
not, — the city people will look after that; but in the meantime it 
remains for us to put into country schools the things that are charac- 
teristic of country life, — those things that give it character, flavor, 
distinctness, — that make the differences by which we distinguish it 
as country life. 

To summarize this chapter without claiming that the last 
word has boon said, the following outline would seem to 
point the way to a movement from "spasmodic theorization" 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



225 



to the "next stage of the argument," which is designed to 
persuade country people to provide ways and means to fit 
their schools for the teaching of practical agriculture : 

1. School garden work. 

2. A Farmer Boys' Experiment Club. 

3. Educational excursions. 

4. Agricultural College extension work. 

5. Bulletins and traveling libraries. 

6. Cooperation of the country school and farmers' institute. 

7. Discussions and illustrated lectures at teachers' institutes. 

8. Consolidation of country schools. 

9. Hard work and plenty of it. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE FINANCIAL PHASE OF THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL 
PROBLEM 

There is a country-school problem. 

Conditions vary so in different localities that it is 
extremely difficult to state a general remedy. This much 
is true, — that the solution of this important educational 
problem does not consist in abolishing the country school, 
but rather in studying how to increase the usefulness of 
this very important institution. The writer yields to no 
one in his belief in the value of the country school ; but 
sometimes when one urges that the country school keep 
pace with progress along other lines, the cry of " Icono- 
clast ! " is raised by those who believe "The present is good 
enough." Yet most of those who advocate the "let-alone 
policy " with reference to the country school do not so act 
with reference to improvement of farm machinery and the 
like. They want the best there is in a material way, and 
many of them send their children away to the cities for 
better educational advantages. At the same time, if those 
who must of necessity remain in the country begin to ask 
for the union of several weak small schools, and to build up 
a high school in the county for all, then comes the criticism 
that the country school is being destroyed. Or if the agita- 
tion is started for a better teacher, or to improve the old 
school building that has stood for forty years, then the cry 

226 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 



227 



is raised, "High taxes," "The country school costs too 
much as it is," " Leave things alone," etc. 

It is seemingly hard for some people to realize the change 
that has come over thousands of country schools in the 
United States during the last forty years. If you talk with 
some of these people who always live in the past educa- 
tionally, they will tell you about the country school of their 
youth, with its seventy-five or eighty pupils taught by a 
strong teacher in every sense of the term. I remember 




Fig. 107. A Type of Small School in Winnebago County, Illinois 

such schools and have no desire whatever to disparage their 
work or estimate lightly their output. No doubt there are 
in existence to-day many of the old-time country schools 
taught by well-educated teachers, men and women of strong 
characters, and receiving a salary of from seventy-five to 
one hundred dollars per month for teaching a one-room 
country school. But my observation leads me to believe 
that there are more of another kind. 

In looking over various state educational reports of the 
great Middle West, I glean the following data. These figures 



228 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

are for the year ending June 30, 1904, and show the enroll- 
ment for one-room country schools in Wisconsin : 

Number of schools with 5 pupils or less 34 

" " " " " more than 5 and less than 11 . . . 236 

" " " " " " 10 '• " " 16 . . . 527 

" - " " 15 " " " 21 . . . 78S 

This gives a total of 1583 small schools out of a total of 
6075 schools with one department. 

Indiana reports 44 schools with an attendance of less 
than 5 pupils, 243 schools with less than 10, 1085 schools 
with less than 1 5, and 2006 schools with less than 20 pupils. 
Missouri has 705 schools with an average attendance of 
less than 12, and 2475 schools with an attendance of more 
than 12 and less than 20. 

Illinois shows the following with reference to enrollment : 

Number of schools with less than 5 pupils 76 

" " " I0 " 5^5 

" " " T 5 " • • "5° 

It may be that each one of the small schools in the above 
states is a good one, in charge of a first-class teacher and 
doing excellent work, — but, after seven years of experience 
with country schools, I doubt it. A small school at its best 
is expensive, the per capita cost both on enrollment and on 
average daily attendance being very high. But the solution 
is not to cheapen instruction for the pupils in the small 
school by hiring a poorly prepared teacher willing to work 
for a minimum wage. The child in a small country school 
is entitled to just as good an educational opportunity as 
that enjoyed by the most favored child attending the public 
school, whether in the city or country. There is a great 
educational as well as financial waste in many hundreds of 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 229 

the small schools. But economy in money expended does 
not necessarily mean less money expended. The country 
people can increase the usefulness of the country school by 
spending more money in a more economical way. 

Strange as it may seem, the dollars-and-cents aspect of 
increasing the usefulness of the country schools is the first, 
last, and only phase that appeals to many country people. 
The question with them is, How much higher will the taxes 
be ? not, Will the proposed improvement give us a better 
school and better returns on money expended, even if a 
few hundred dollars more are needed annually ? The people 
and school officers need to study the financial phase of 
present conditions. Let us not cheapen educational oppor- 
tunity for the country child. In our county I have tried to 
make a careful analysis of the problem as it is with us. 
Other counties may differ widely from Winnebago, but at 
any rate we need more publicity regarding the present sit- 
uation. When we know the facts in the case we may reason 
more intelligently. In my annual report for 1905 I pre- 
sented an array of statistics showing the cost of country 
schools in all the townships of Winnebago County. It is 
enough for present purposes to give the figures of two town- 
ships, comparing them with those of the city of Rockford. 
The table on page 230 will show the method pursued. 

Now some observations as to the financial phase of the 
problem may be instructive. While it is true that the con- 
ditions of one county do not necessarily establish a gen- 
eral rule, yet they point to some things common to a great 
many localities, if the reports of state superintendents indi- 
cate anything. 

There are one hundred and six one-room country schools 
and nine graded schools in Winnebago County. The 



230 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 







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THE FINANCIAL PHASE 231 

expenditures for all educational purposes by the one hundred 
and six one-room country schools show the following with 
reference to the amount expended annually : 

Number of country schools expending less than $300 .... 39 
Number of country schools expending more than $300 and less 

than $400 51 

Number of country schools expending more than $400 ... 16 

As I have said before, the small school is expensive, as 
shown by the high per capita cost on both enrollment and 
average daily attendance. Again, the small school need not 
necessarily be a poor one. It is possible to have in each one 
of the small schools such a teacher as State Superintendent 
Bayliss describes, — one who is capable of instructing in 
an annual teachers' institute alongside of training teachers 
from our state normal schools. This teacher, a woman, 
has taught "the same country school for the last eight 
or nine years ; she has seven pupils enrolled this year, and 
her board of directors pay her sixty dollars per month." 
Superintendent Bayliss would hardly offer this one instance 
as indicating a general rule for the kind of teachers in the 
small country schools of Illinois. I doubt if this is the rule 
under like conditions in other states. However that may be, 
such is not the rule in Winnebago County. 

If we are going to increase the usefulness of the small 
country school, we must increase the quality of the in- 
struction. This means better-trained teachers at salaries 
ranging from sixty to eighty dollars per month. Hence 
country people can have better schools if they will expend 
more money on them and expend it in a better way. The 
money question is fundamental in the solution of the 
country-school problem. 



232 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

It does not seem that the country children are getting a 
"square deal" under existing circumstances. Contrast the 
annual expenditures of the one-room country schools of 
Winnebago County with the pay of janitors in the city 
of Rockford for the same year. The lowest salary, three 
hundred and twenty dollars, is paid to take care of a four- 
room building. 

Salaries of School Janitors, City of Rockford 

Name of School Amount 

Lincoln $55° 

Hall 590 

Kent 550 

Garrison 445 

Kishwaukee 590 

Nelson 320 

Blake 445 

Ellis 320 

High School 1 1 70 

Henry Freeman 590 

Brown ^50 

Montague 445 

Church ^0 

Wight 550 

Marsh 320 

Haskell 320 



Turnei 



590 



As given above, the number of country schools expend- 
ing less than three hundred dollars per annum is thirty-nine ; 
the number expending more than three hundred dollars 
but less than four hundred dollars is fifty-one. The reader 
may say, "The above is not true of my county.'' I hope it 
is not ; but I venture to say that if an investigation were 
made into thousands of country schools, and the exact 
figures given as I have tried to give them, we should find 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 



233 



a similar condition of things. It is true that the prophet 
who says things are all right is the one who will be greeted 
with loud hosannas by the unthinking crowd, — by the 
people who don't know the actual situation. 

Now the per capita expense in the country schools of 
Winnebago County ranges from $6.80 to $50.26 on enroll- 
ment, while on average daily attendance the cost per child 
ranges from $1 1.62 to $77.91. There are forty-eight coun- 
try schools with a per capita cost of more than $20 on 




Fig. 108. Another Typical Country Schoolhouse 

enrollment, while eighty-nine country schools have a per 
capita cost of more than $20 on average daily attendance. 
There are forty-one country schools with a per capita tax of 
more than $30 on average daily attendance, and seventeen 
country schools with a similar tax of more than $40. 

Bear in mind the most of these country schools are open 
only eight months and do not attempt any high-school 
work. The per capita for the city schools of Rockford for 
the same year is $18.10 on enrollment (same as Seward 
Consolidated) and $22.59 f° r average daily attendance. 



234 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Just one item more on school revenue in this connection. 
Many country people are afraid consolidation will increase 
the taxes to the extent of possible bankruptcy, and profess 
to be really alarmed on this score. By the statistics given 
in my annual report for 1905 (see page 229), sixty-three 
country schools are paying a higher per capita on enroll- 
ment, and fifty-eight of the same schools a higher per capita 
on average daily attendance, than the consolidated district 
is paying in Seward Township, not counting the cost of a 
new building for the consolidated school ; and the omission 
of the cost of the new building is legitimate in making this 
comparison, for in total expenditures not a dollar is counted 
for new country-school buildings. 

Better schools cost more money, to be sure ; but farms 
have increased in value and farmers have been receiving 
good prices for their products. 

It may be urged that farmers cannot levy enough taxes 
on their valuation to support better schools. There may be 
instances of this kind, but this is not the rule. The following 
shows the tax rate, levy, and valuation of every school dis- 
trict in Winnebago County outside of the city of Rockford 
for the year ending June 30, 1904. Notice the inequality 
of taxation by the single-district system, as is the plan in 
Illinois. The school law of Illinois permits directors to levy 
two and one-half per cent per annum for general educa- 
tional purposes and an additional two and one-half per cent 
for building purposes. Thus a total levy of five per cent is 
possible, if the necessity exists, on the assessed valuation. 
The " assessed valuation " as given below is the sum on 
which taxes are levied, and by the Illinois revenue law is 
supposed to represent one fifth of the fair cash value of 
the property of the district. 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 



235 



Table of Valuation, Rate, and Levy for Year 
ending June 30, 1904 



No. OF 


Assessed R 


VTE 


Amount 


No. OF 


Assessed Rv 


iTE 


Amount 


DlST. 


Valuation pei 


I IOO 


of Levy 


DlST. 


Valuation pei 


* IOO 


of Levy 


! 


$29,230 $1 


T 5 


$335-68 


36 


$22,978 $1 


12 


$257.34 


2 


15,978 I 


94 


309.68 


37 


22,941 I 


80 


412.92 


3 


104,411 2 


00 


1292.44 


3S 


2 3'755 1 


09 


258.98 


4 


27,876 I 


02 


284.32 


39 


24,195 1 


28 


309.68 


5 


22,892 I 


57 


359-45 


40 


34,58i 


89 


307.67 


6 


43-3° 8 


71 


208.94 


4i 


46,441 


78 


362.34 


7 


15-77 1 


85 


282.61 


42 


70,378 


44 


309-5 1 


8 


28,029 


55 


114. 11 


43 


57,625 


62 


357-26 


9 


94,021 1 


71 


1077.38 


44 


33,o8i 1 


09 


360.39 


10 


28,149 1 


55 


436.32 


45 


65743 


47 


194.62 


1 1 


24,918 1 


45 


361.36 


46 


48,184 1 


39 


632.06 


12 


58,782 


70 


281.28 


47 


48,564 


64 


310.94 


13 


131,864 1 


96 


1872.00 


48 


45,856 


79 


258.56 


14 


65,616 


55' 


299.34 


49 


41,200 


75 


274.02 


iS 


32,211 


96 


309.21 


5° 


40,671 


89 


281.39 


16 


20,901 1 


97 


411.77 


5i 


45,33 2 


9i 


412.51 


19 


18,463 1 


95 


360.08 


5 2 


37,333 


69 


231-47 


20 


19,060 1 


35 


257-38 


53 


22,747 1 


25 


220.41 


21 


34,962 


88 


307.64 


54 


69,557 


56 


294.75 


22 


25,760 


90 


231.85 


55 


54,582 


66 


240.05 


2 3 


29,024 1 


06 


307.69 


56 


37,i4i 


90 


285.25 


24 


24,520 1 


47 


360.50 


57 


73>859 


56 


413-65 


25 


31,317 1 


32 


334-36 


58 


43,3 2 5 


60 


259-95 


26 


35,448 


87 


247.60 


59 


14,887 1 


35 


200.98 


27 


109,683 2 


30 


2420.09 


61 


66,811 


54 


221.13 


28 


40,363 


90 


3 I 5- I 5 


62 


32,996 


78 


257.42 


29 


29,388 


96 


260.25 


63 


63,503 


57 


361.91 


30 


55> o6 4 


65 


357-9 1 


64 


38,190 


94 


359-03 


3 r 


37,i8o 


76 


282.59 


65 


35,046 1 


°3 


294.72 


3 2 


32,863 1 


48 


362.88 


66 


79,i55 


46 


360.16 


33 


20,718 1 


50 


195-97 


67 


36,308 


74 


268.63 


34 


15,325 1 


69 


258.97 


68 


160,989 1 


72 


2439-37 


35 


37,900 


68 


169.29 


69 


129,251 2 


08 


2463-75 



236 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Table of Valuation, Rate, and Levy for Year 
ending June 30, 1904 — continued 



No. OF 


Assessed 


Rate 


Amount 


No. of 


Assessed 


Rate 


Amount 


DlST. 


Valuation 


PER IOO 


of Levy 


Dist. 


Valuation 


per IOO 


of Levy 


70 


$94,139 


$0.11 


$87.22 


IOO 


$37,694 


#1.64 


$6iS.iS 


71 


67,200 


.84 


4S6.19 


101 


55,070 


•75 


344-71 


72 


7S, 65 


•45 


292.81 


102 


42,318 


•98 


414.27 


73 


33>3 2 ° 


•77 


256.56 


103 


99,370 


.40 


3 T 9-57 


74 


3S,399 


1.07 


410.89 


104 


24,781 


1-25 


309.82 


75 


3 ,7i7 


.84 


25S.OI 


105 


35,463 


1. 16 


4H-33 


76 


3M94 


.91 


283.89 


106 


22,786 


1.47 


335-95 


77 


26,810 


.96 


257-38 


107 


44,918 


•5 2 


180.37 


78 


29,620 


1.30 


3S5-09 


108 


29,195 


1.32 


385-39 


79 


34,650 


1.19 


412.34 


109 


49,439 


1.0S 


406.71 


80 


23,815 


1.0S 


257-I7 


I 10 


J 7,539 


1. 17 


307-86 


81 


32,597 


•95 


309-73 


III 


31,882 


1. 12 


244.90 


82 


19,144 


i-35 


25^.47 


I 12 


112,544 


2.28 


1738-14 


33 


41,596 


•52 


216.27 


IJ 3 


73,45° 


•35 


117.97 


84 


35,092 


.88 


308.78 


114 


78,012 


■33 


163.28 


85 


57,639 


•63 


320.62 


Ir 5 


37,876 


1.09 


412.89 


86 


246,304 


2.28 


4608.98 


116 


29,335 


1.23 


360.82 


87 


60,619 


•76 


352.04 


117 


I5.3I9 


1.22 


1S6.63 


88 


38,861 


.So 


310.86 


11S 


24,074 


.96 


231-13 


89 


30,984 


•83 


257-I5 


119 


32,572 


•87 


2834S 


92 


63,142 


■57 


275-87 


120 


24,426 


1.05 


255-43 


93 


58,620 


.88 


467.98 


121 


156,247 


1.83 


2425.10 


96 


44,403 


.82 


248.73 


(Consol- 
idated 








97 


136,899 


1.88 


2198.54 


school] 








98 


65,595 


•7i 


243.96 


144 


16,279 


.90 


146.52 


99 


54,034 


•38 


161. 13 


202 


27,671 


1.56 


417.48 



The rate for the city of Rockford is $1.95 on a hundred 
dollars. 

From the above table, it will be seen that out of the 106 
country schools 63 levy less than one per cent for all 
educational purposes, while 94 country districts levy less 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 



237 



than one and one-half per cent annually. A table of district- 
school tax and levy of Ogle County (adjoining Winnebago 
on the south), issued by County Superintendent Neff, has 
just been received. Out of a total of 162 one-room country 
schools in that county, 30 of them levied less than three 
hundred dollars, while 136 country schools levied four hun- 
dred dollars or less. The tax rate was less than one per 
cent for 97 schools, while for 155 districts the rate was less 
than one and one-half per cent, or $1.50 on a hundred 
dollars. As far as country-school revenues are concerned, 
it is fair to presume that Winnebago and Ogle counties, 
two of the best counties in northern Illinois, are fair rep- 
resentatives of that part of the state. The great bulk of 
school revenue for Illinois is derived from local taxation. 
The income from the state tax amounts to only forty-three 
cents for each person under twenty-one years old in Win- 
nebago County, — not a very great sum. 



Highest and Lowest Salary per Month for Country 
School-Teachers in Winnebago County, 1896-1905 





Highest Salary 


Lowest Salary 


Year 


Male 


Female 


Year 


Male 


Female 


1S96 
1S97 
1898 
1899 
19CO 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 

J 9°5 


$42.50 
45.OO 
40.OO 
40.OO 
44.OO 
46.OO 
41.OO 
45.OO 
45.OO 
45.OO 


$42.50 
40.OO 
40.OO 
40.OO 
3S.50 
40.OO 
40.OO 
40.CO 
40.OO 
45.OO 


1S96 
1897 
1S98 
1S99 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
I9 C 4 
1905 


$20.00 
23.CO 
22.00 
25.OO 
25.00 
25.OO 

. 25.00 
25.OO 
25.OO 
25.OO 


$l8.00 
1S.00 

20.00 

20.00 

20.00 • 

20.00 

20.00 

20.00 

20.00 

22.50 



238 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Contrast the annual wage of the country school-teachers 

of Winnebago County with the annual wage of the janitors 

of the city of Rockford, as given in the table on page 232. 

The number of small country schools in Winnebago County, 

as given by the first table in this chapter, is as follows : 

Number of schools enrolling 5 pupils or less 2 

" " " " 10 " " " 9 

15 " " " 43 

" " " " 20 " " " 69 

The real basis of comparison as to cost of small schools 
and consolidated schools is the average daily attendance. 
The unit is the day's work. On the basis of average daily 
attendance the number of small schools, as given above, 
shows the following changes : 

Number of schools with average daily attendance of 5 or less 6 

" " " " " " " 10 " ;i 41 

" " " " " " " 15 " " 83 

" " " " " " " 20 " " 92 

And yet, after all that has been said in this chapter, 
some people wonder why I favor consolidation of country 
schools. I insist, however, that the consolidated school 
remain a country school and not become a city school. 
This is no reflection whatever upon the city school. 

I have purposely dwelt upon the financial phase of the 
country-school problem, for it seems to me to be funda- 
mental. Some would emphasize the poor teaching done in 
many country schools and the lack of efficient supervision. 
These are very important things. It is true that there are 
country school-teachers who do not earn the wages they 
now receive, but this can be said truthfully of other people. 
We shall have better teaching for the country child when 



THE FINANCIAL PHASE 239 

the country people learn to appreciate what good teaching 
is. Then they will demand better teachers, and, what is of 
more importance just now, will be willing to pay a salary 
sufficiently generous to warrant a person's spending two or 
three years in preparation at a good normal school. 

What is the plain duty of the country people ? The 
country child is entitled to just as good educational advan- 
tages as those enjoyed by the most favored city child 
attending the American public school ; and to have better 
schools for the country child, to increase the usefulness of 
the country school, and to meet the new conditions of coun- 
try life, the country people must not cheapen education, but 
more money must be expended in a 7nore economical way. 



CHAPTER XII 



CONSOLIDATION 



In July, 1897, I attended the meeting of the National 
Educational Association at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 
there secured a copy of the Report of the Committee of 
Twelve on Country Schools. It was there I first heard 



1 




&3F&- 



Fig. 109. The First Consolidated School Building in Illinois: Seward 
Township, Winnebago County 



about consolidation, or centralization, of country schools. It 
seemed to me then to be a proper and sane solution of the 
country-school problem. I attended a country school when 
a boy and quit the district school when about sixteen years 

240 




Fig. i io. The Buildings abandoned for the Consolidated School 



241 



242 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

old for the same reason that hundreds of country boys are 
now quitting it. Now, after seven years' work as County 
Superintendent of Schools, I see no reason to change the 
opinion I formed at the Milwaukee meeting in 1897. 
Since then I have been privileged to visit the central- 
ized schools of northeastern Ohio. What I saw there but 
confirmed my conclusions formerly made, and after five 
years of educational effort we have succeeded in starting 
a consolidated school in Winnebago County, the first of 
its kind in Illinois. 

I hope the preceding chapters of this book have shown 
that consolidation is not the only thing to be considered 
with reference to increasing the usefulness of the country 
school. It is only one phase of the work in Winnebago 
County, and a very important one, too, in view of the possi- 
bilities ; but we have not been content to wait till consoli- 
dation, in its own good time, should come and settle all our 
troubles. It will never do that. So in the meantime we 
organized the outdoor and indoor art movements, — that is, 
beautifying school grounds and school gardens, decorating 
the schoolroom, instituting traveling libraries, boys' and 
girls' clubs, educational excursions, and the like, in the hope 
of changing the attitude of the country people with refer- 
ence to the district school and leading them to see that 
the consolidated country school, in the true significance of 
that term, is the consummation of our efforts. 

Consolidation, like other good movements, must pass 
through ridicule, reproach, and misrepresentation. At first 
the attitude of a great many country people is that of 
hostility. Innumerable, and to them insurmountable, objec- 
tions are given why consolidation " will never work with us." 
But time and reflection change the opinion of many. The 



CONSOLIDATION 243 

thing to do is to sow the seed, to inform the country peo- 
ple thoroughly as to the present condition of the country 
school in all its relations, to inform them as to what con- 
solidation really is, and then let them think the matter out 
for themselves. In this educational campaign, which may 
extend over five years, as was the case with us in Seward 
Township, it must be the constant aim to reach the farmer 
on his own ground. That which will appeal to the school- 
man from a pedagogical or some scholastic point- of view 
ofttimes has no weight with the countryman. If you ask 
me how to do this, my reply is, " I don't know." Local 
conditions must be studied. 

I am not in favor of consolidation if the consolidated 
school is to be an imitation of a city school, or if it is 
secured by telling the farmers that it will reduce expenses. 
A great many of the country schools are too cheap now; 
that is the matter with them. So far as I know, consoli- 
dation will lessen the per capita cost for education and 
remove financial waste in the case of the expensive small 
school. It is economy, however, for the country people 
to expend more money in a better way, that will insure 
greater returns to more children, and it may be that the 
total school tax in time will decrease for the township. 
Let us not cheapen educational opportunity for the coun- 
try child. 

The chairman of the committee that published the report 
given at the Milwaukee meeting was Honorable Henry 
Sabin of Iowa. Nearly six years later I received the follow- 
ing letter from him. It is given here because of the sound 
judgment and sterling worth of the one who wrote it ; also 
because it expresses so well what I had been advocating 
before its receipt. 



244 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Des Moines, Iowa, February 16, 1903 

Superintendent O. J. Kern, Rockford, Illinois 

My dear Mr. Kern : I am greatly pleased with the tone of your 
articles in the School News. You seem to have gotten the idea that 
education is not entirely derived from books. I wish you success 
in working out your plans for better surroundings for the country 
schools, for more tasteful rooms, for well-cared-for school grounds, 
for school gardens, and for better teachers. It seems to me that in 
our attempt to consolidate country schools we are giving altogether 
too much prominence to the intellectual work. We are holding out 
the idea continually that scholars will make greater advancement in 
their books if they can be brought to one large building and put 
through a graded course. This to me is the one great objection to 
consolidation. If we ever have time to do anything for the country 
districts, the first step must be to separate them from city schools, 
to give them a course of instruction especially adapted to country 
life, and to place in them teachers who are capable of giving that 
kind of instruction. As far as I know, there is not a normal school 



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Fig. in. Transportation in Indiana 

in the land making any attempts to supply teachers for country 
schools. If there is such a school, I should like to know where it is. 
In my humble opinion the time has not yet come when we can 
dispense with the country schools. I can see great advantages in 
gathering the children from a few small districts into one large 
school, but with that change there should be the demand for at 



CONSOLIDATION 



2 45 



least three acres of school gardens and the attempt to make country 
life not only endurable but even attractive. 

I cannot find this idea anywhere, except in Winnebago County, 
and the want of it I look upon as one of the great mistakes that we 
are making. If in every township there could be two or three schools 
of that kind, something like experiment stations, where children could 




Fig. 112. Transportation in Indiana 



be taught the rudiments of agriculture and the attractions of farm 
life', then there might be one school in the center of the township, 
something more in the nature of a high school ; but even the object 
of that high school should not be to fit the child for college or the 
university, but to carry him farther along the same line in which he 
commences in the lower schools. 

I am watching this matter of consolidation with a great deal of 
interest and, I confess, with some alarm. We never ought, in my 
opinion, to say or believe that consolidation will lessen the expense. 
If that is true, then I am against consolidation. What we need is to 
spend more money on our education, and I am fully in accord with 
President Eliot in this respect. 

Perhaps this does not interest you particularly, and yet I think it 
will because of what I have seen of your articles in the papers. I am 
greatly interested in the country-school problem, but I want it to take 
the right direction. Simply to bring the country children into the 
city and make the country school an annex of the city school will be 
productive of evil and will intensify city life and degrade country life. 



Yours very truly, 



Henry Sabin 



2 46 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

I think all friends of the country school will agree that 
consolidation will lessen the per capita cost of education for 
small schools, but I agree with Mr. Sabin that we should not 
try to advance consolidation on the plea of less total cost to 
the territory consolidated. Country people as a whole, so far 
as I know, are not spending enough money in the right way 
for the education of country children. When farmers now 
in Winnebago County are offering from twenty-five to thirty 
dollars per month for hired help on the farm, while teachers' 




Fig. 113. Going Home from School in Illinois: Temperature 
Twelve Degrees below Zero 

salaries are as low as they are, it would seem that there is 
much truth in President Eliot's contention. 

Perhaps, however, the reader would like to know what 
consolidation is and to have a brief history of its progress. 

Centralization or consolidation of country schools does 
not necessarily mean that all the schools of a township 
must be combined into one school located at the geograph- 
ical center of the township. There may be a union of three 
or four district schools, making a two-room graded school, 
and there may be two of such schools in a single township ; 



CONSOLIDATION 



247 



or small schools may be centralized with an established 
graded school where conditions are favorable. Complete 
centralization, of course, means the union of all the schools 
of a township into one graded school, where conditions are 
favorable for such an arrangement. There may be a con- 
solidation of the schools of two or three townships, just as 
there are now union districts. 

Consolidation of country schools and the transportation 
of children are now going on in the states of Connecticut, 
Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New 




Fig. 114. The New Way 



Ohio 



Hampshire, Mairte, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Vermont, 
South Dakota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North 
Dakota, New York, New Jersey, and California. These 
states represent over half of the population of the United 
States. 

To Massachusetts belongs the honor of first developing 
the district system, and also the leadership in consolidation 
of school districts. By the act of 1869, any town in Mas- 
sachusetts was authorized to raise money by taxation to 
enable the school committee, at its discretion, to provide 
for the conveyance of pupils to and from the public schools 
at public cost. Probably the first general statement in print 
of the results of the law of 1869 was a pamphlet prepared 



248 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

by Superintendent W. L. Eaton, of Concord, for the Massa- 
chusetts public-school exhibit at the World's Columbian 
Exposition. Superintendent Eaton says in part : 

At first the authority was used mainly to convey pupils to the high 
school. Within a few years, however, many communities have used 
this authority to increase the educational advantages of the children, 
constantly decreasing in numbers, who live in districts at a distance 
from the center of population. This has been accomplished by 
closing many district schools and transporting, at public expense, 
their pupils to the neighboring district schools or to the village. 

The progress of consolidation and the amount of money 
paid for transportation in Massachusetts is well set forth 
in the table of expenditures for transportation published by 
the State Board of Education : 

V Amount y Amount 

iEAR Expended year Expended 

1888-1889 $22,118.38 1S95-1896 $91,136.11 

1889-1890 24,145.12 1896-1897 105,317.13 



1 890-1 89 1 30,648.6s 

1S91-1S92 38,726.07 

1892-1893 50,590.41 

1893-1894 63,617.68 

1894-1895 76,608.29 



1897-1898 123,032.41 

1898-1899 . . . . . 127,402.22 

1899-1900 141,753.84 

1 900-1 90 1 151,773.47 



It would seem that the above amounts of public funds 
expended for transportation is money well spent, if one 
may judge from the following extract from the report of 
the Massachusetts Board of Education prepared by State 
Agent G. T. Fletcher : 

Whatever advantages a carefully graded system of schools, occu- 
pying a well-ventilated and well-cared-for schoolhouse, taught by a 
body of intelligent and earnest teachers, cooperating to secure the 
best discipline within and without the schoolroom, has over a mixed 



CONSOLIDATION 249 

country school, such advantages are shared alike by all the inhabit- 
ants of this town. All are alike interested in all real progress in 
methods of discipline and instruction and in improved appliances to 
aid instruction. Superintendents become more efficient. The intro- 
duction of new subjects of study and of drawing and music and 
nature study is made possible and easy. Appliances of all kinds and 
books of reference can be provided more extensively and at less cost. 
The history of this movement in Concord conclusively shows that the 
success of the plan was due to its intrinsic merit, acting upon the 
minds of an enlightened people desirous of furthering the true educa- 
tional interests of their children. 

From Massachusetts the movement spread through all 
the rest of New England. An idea of the significance and 
extent of consolidation in the great Middle West may be 
obtained from the reports of the State Superintendents of 
Public Instruction of the states of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio, and Nebraska. 

Indiana reports as follows for the entire state : 

Number of schools abandoned 783 

Number of wagons used in transporting children . . . 378 

Number of children transported 5396 

Cost per day of transportation of pupils $603.00 

Cost per wagon per day for transportation of pupils . . 1.60 

While at the St. Louis Exposition, in 1904, I tried to 
make a study of country-school improvement as shown in 
the various state exhibits in the Palace of Education. I 
was much impressed with the Indiana exhibit on consoli- 
dation. On my return home I wrote to various county 
superintendents for data and photographs, which I used in 
my 1 904 yearbook for distribution into every country home 
in my own county. Part of the exhibit of Lagrange County, 
Indiana, is reproduced here, as follows : 



250 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Financial Statement showing Saving from Consolida- 
tion in Lagrange County, Indiana 



School Year 1903-1904 



Townships 


Schools 
Aban- 
doned 


Additional 
Teachers 
at Points 
of Con- 
solidation 


Saving in 
Number of 
Teachers 


Saving in 
Salaries 


Saving 
in Fuel 

AND 

Repairs 


Gross 

Reduction 


Bloomfield . 


4 





4 


$I,374-40 


$300.00 


$1,674.40 


Clay . . . 


4 


O 


4 


1,37440 


320.OO 


1,694.40 


Greenfield . 


5 


I 


4 


1,374-40 


300.00 


1,674.40 


Johnson . 


5 


I 


4 


1,374-40 


260.OO 


1,634.40 


Lima . . . 


3 


O 


3 


1,030.80 


240.OO 


1,270.80 


Milford . . 


7 


2 


5 


1,718.00 


280.OO 


1,998.00 


Springfield . 


5 


2 


3 


1,030.80 


240.OO 


1,270.80 


Van Buren . 


5 


I 


4 


1,374.40 


320.OO 


1,694.40 


Totals . 


38 


7 


3 1 


$10,651.60 


$2260.00 


$12,91 I.60 



From the above deduct the following additional expenses 
incurred in transportation of four hundred and twenty-eight 
pupils in twenty-nine hacks to fourteen different schools. 
The difference, $6734.74, is the net saving by consolidation. 



Townships 


Number 
of Hacks 


Number 
of Pupils 
Conveyed 


Cost of all 
Transporta- 
tion for Year 


Net Gains 


Bloomfield 

Clay 

Greenfield 

Johnson 

Lima 

Milford 

Springfield 

Van Buren 


4 
4 
3 
3 

2 

6 

4 
3 


73 
46 

35 

5 1 

3° 

117 

43 
33 


$1017.00 
712.08 
646.OO 

5 J 7-5o 
5S3.00 
1261.48 
873.00 
566.S0 


$657.40 

982.32 

1028.40 

1 1 16.90 

6S7.80 

73 6 -5 2 

397.80 

1127.60 


Totals 


29 


42S 


$6176.86 


$6734.74 



CONSOLIDATION 251 

From this it appears that the transportation of four hun- 
dred and twenty-eight children made possible the closing 
of thirty-eight schools, a reduction of twenty-four teachers, 
and a net saving of $6734.74. 

Educational Statement 

The following important facts are given with reference 
to service rendered in transportation : 

1 . The drivers carry watches and consult them while on the route. 

2. Each driver keeps the time of the consolidated school, gener- 
ally standard. 

3. The rate of speed while on the route averages five miles per 
hour for the year. 

4. The time of arrival varies from ten to fifteen minutes prior to 
the opening of the schools. 

5. The 1 more remote pupils ride about five miles, and sixty per 
cent ride three miles or less. 

6. Children are kept comfortable by stoves, patent heaters, 
blankets, and soapstones. 

7. The greatest advantage to the service is township ownership 
of hacks and the improvement of roads. 

8. The drivers exercise due responsibility in promptly and safely 
conveying the children to school and returning them to their homes ; 
they also, by contract, prohibit questionable language, undue famil- 
iarity, and boisterous conduct in or about the hacks. 

9. Eighty-five per cent of the patrons have reported the consoli- 
dated school as their preference in comparison with the " old way." 

10. Decreased enumerations in eight of our eleven townships 
gave the system its initiative, and the better instruction and educa- 
tional encouragement to the great majority of the conveyed pupils 
have strengthened the services of the schools and enhanced the local 
educational spirit. 

In October, 1900, in company with State Superintend- 
ent Alfred Bayliss and Mr. John Black, Chairman of the 
Committee on Education of the Winnebago County Board 



252 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



of Supervisors, I visited the centralized schools in Lake, 
Ashtabula, Trumbull, and Geauga counties, in north- 
eastern Ohio. In December of that same year I published 
an illustrated report of that visit. This report has been 
reprinted in part or entire by various school journals and 
newspapers of the United States and Canada, and was also 
reproduced entire, with illustrations, in the report of the 
United States Commissioner of Education. 

A small part of the account of our visit is here given. 



. . . Madison Township, Lake County, presents an excel- 
lent illustration of what may be called partial centralization, 
that is, a grouping of two, three, or four schools into one 
without attempting to bring all the schools to the geograph- 
ical center of the township. The latter method would not 




Fig. 115. A Centralized Country-School Building, Green Township, 
Trumbull County, Ohio 

be practicable because of the shape of Madison Township. 
It is one of the townships along the shore of Lake Erie 
and is nine miles long by. five miles wide. Most of the 



CONSOLIDATION 



253 



townships of the Western Reserve are five miles square, 
while in other portions of the state, where centralization is 
successful, they are even larger than six miles square. 

Centralization in Madison Township has been in successful 
operation since 1896. We visited the schools at Unionville 




Fig. 116. School Building at Kingsville, Ohio, where Centraliza- 
tion of Schools began in 1892 

and North Madison, and Superintendent J. R. Adams, prin- 
cipal of the Unionville school and superintendent of Madison 
Township during the months of December, 1901, and Janu- 
ary, 1902, sent me the following facts and illustrations: 

1. They have now only three one-teacher schools in the township. 

2. Since centralizing the per cent of enrollment of children of 
school age, between six and twenty-one, has increased from sixty per 
cent in 1894 to eighty-six per cent in 1901. 

3. For the year ending June, 1901, twenty pupils were talcing high- 
school studies. (This is more than can be said of some Illinois 
townships.) 

4. The total cost for the township for educational expenses in 
1896 was $7S5S ; f or 190 1, $7243- 

5. The cost of transportation in 1896 was $332 ; for 1901, $1618. 

6. The incidental expenses for the township in 1896 were $2509; 
for 1901, $902. 



254 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

7. The total enrollment in 1896 for the township was three hundred 
and ninety; for 1901, four hundred and fourteen. 

8. The per capita cost for education for the township, based on total 
enrollment for the year, was $19.36 for 1896, and $17.50 for 1901. 

. . . We next visited Kingsville in Ashtabula County, 
four hundred and one miles east of Chicago. This was 
our farthest point east. Kingsville is a small village with 
a township high school. To the school are brought all the 
children of the township, with the exception of two dis- 
tricts. Four wagons are used at a cost of twenty, twenty- 
four, twenty-five, and twenty-eight dollars per month 
respectively, for a month of twenty days. The school year 
is nine months. Five teachers are employed in the build- 
ing. The testimony of the principal of the school, the 
town clerk, and Mr. Kinneer, of the Board of Education, 
was that there was an actual saving in the total cost to 
the township under the new plan ; arid while money was 
expended for transportation of pupils, it was more than 
saved in the smaller number of schools operated ; and as to 
the increased efficiency of the new centralized school over 
the scattered schools, that was beyond a question of doubt. 

It was here that the Ohio plan of centralization had its 
origin in 1892. The erection of a new building in one of 
the districts of Kingsville Township brought up the ques- 
tion whether or not it would be better to abandon the 
school in that district and take the children to the village 
school at the general expense. In this first case of consoli- 
dation in Ohio the schools were centralized at the village 
school, a village situated about a mile and a half from the 
railroad. The results, educationally, in the small districts 
were far from satisfactory. In order to consolidate and 
transport children at public expense special legislation was 



CONSOLIDATION 255 

necessary, and so the Ohio legislature passed the following 
bill, April 17, 1894 : 

Section i. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Ohio that 
any Board of Education in any township which by the census of 1890 
had a population not less than seventeen hundred and ten or more 
than seventeen hundred and fifteen; of any county which by the 
same census had not less than forty-three thousand six hundred and 
fifty, nor more than forty-three thousand six hundred and sixty inhabit- 
ants, may, at their discretion, appropriate funds derived from the 
school tax levy of said township for the conveyance of pupils in sub- 
districts from their homes to the high-school building of such town- 
ship ; provided such appropriation for any subdistrict shall not 
exceed the amount necessary, in the judgment of the board, for the 
maintenance of a teacher in such subdistrict for the same period 
of time. 

The Kipgsville plan proved such a success that on April 
27, 1896, the Ohio legislature passed a bill for the relief 
of the counties of Stark, Ashtabula, and Portage, which 
provided that the Board of Education of any township of 
those counties may, 

when in its opinion it will be for the best interest of the pupils in 
any subdistrict, suspend the school in such subdistrict and provide 
for the conveyance of said pupils to such other district or districts as 
may be convenient for them ; the cost of such conveyance to be paid 
out of the contingent fund of said district ; provided the board of 
any special school district in any county mentioned above may pro- 
vide for the conveyance of pupils out of the contingent funds, the 
same as townships aforesaid. 

Since then a general law has been enacted, permitting 
the people of any township at the annual town election to 
vote yes or no on the proposition to centralize the schools 
of that township, — that is, to abandon the small districts 
and transport the children at public expense to the central 
school. Such, in brief, is the history of the legislation. 



256 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



. . . But we wished to find centralized schools in a purely 
country township, where there was no village or village 




Fig. 117. A Map of Ohio showing Centralized Schools, 1905 

^school, — a place where country life was being preserved. 
We went thirty-five miles south of Ashtabula and visited 
Gustavus and Green townships in Trumbull County. The 



CONSOLIDATION 257 

first place visited was Gustavus. This township is exactly 
five miles square, as are all the townships of the Western 
Reserve, with the exception of those along the shore of Lake 
Erie. In Gustavus Township the townhall is situated exactly 
in the center of the township, as is the case in Green Town- 
ship. Here was a church, the post office, a country store, 
and a few houses. 

I had a picture of the centralized school of Gustavus 
Township and was anxious to see the real thing. We saw 
it, and all was as represented. The school building is 
located in the center of the township. The school has 
been in operation two years. It is a four-room school, hav- 
ing a principal and three assistants. All the children of 
the township are brought to this central school, and nine 
wagons are employed in the transportation. 

The wagons are provided with curtains, lap robes, soap- 
stones, etc., for severe weather. The Board of Education 
exercises as much care in the selection of drivers as of 
teachers. The contract for each route is let out to the 
lowest responsible bidder, who is under bond to fulfill his 
obligations. The drivers are required to have the children 
on the school grounds at 8.45 a.m., which does away with 
tardiness, and to leave for home at 3.45 p.m. The wagons 
call at every farmhouse where there are school children, 
the children stepping into them at the roadside and being 
set down upon the school grounds. There is no tramping 
through snow and mud, and the attendance is much in- 
creased and far more regular. With the children under 
the control of responsible drivers, there is no opportunity 
for vicious conversation or the terrorizing of the little ones 
by some bully as they trudge homeward through the snow 
and mud from the district school. 



258 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



. . . While we were at the Gustavus school the prin- 
cipal advised us to drive five miles to the west into Green 
Township, where the people had centralized and put up 
a fine new brick building at a cost of over six thousand 
dollars. The people of Green Township had watched the 




Central School • 

Abandoned Schools B 

Transportation Routes 



Fig. i iS. A Map of Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, 1905 

school in Gustavus Township for two years, and believed so 
thoroughly in the new plan that at the last April election 
they voted to centralize and bond the township for a long 
term to erect a new building. The vote was overwhelm- 
ingly in favor of the new school. We drove west to the 
center of Green Township, which is five miles square. This 



CONSOLIDATION 



259 



township is eleven miles from one railroad and six miles 
from another; so it is distinctively rural. To be sure, 
there is the townhall, a post office, a church or two, a 
country store, and a few dwellings. That is New England 



. *— T-S— *-5»— 9 "■ 


f 

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3 

1 


T If // 

1 H 

1 V 


S*4 X 


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ix . .J 


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1 X x 1 


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1 X 

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SCALE 3 IN.= 1 MILE 


• FARMHOUSE, NO CHILDREN. | ABANDONED SCHOOL 
X " " WITH " □ CENTRAL " 


>. DIRECTION OF ROUTES 

* STARTING " " 



Fig. 119. Transportation Routes, Gustavus Township, 
Trumbull County, Ohio 

brought to the Western Reserve. We all were enthusiastic 
over this building for country children. We never saw the 
like before in the country, where miserable box-car, one- 
room structures are the general rule. And the possibilities 
of such a school — who can measure them ? 



2 6o AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

This building stands in the center of the township in a 
community distinctively country. It was built in 1900 at 
a cost of six thousand dollars. There are six schoolrooms 
with two additional, one of which may serve as a library 
room and the other as an office and reception room. There 
is a basement under the entire building, part of which may 
be utilized for laboratory and gymnasium. The building is 
heated by steam. 

They began this school in September last. The enroll- 
ment is one hundred and eighty against one hundred and 
fifty of last year in the scattered schools. Four teachers 
are employed. All the children of the township are brought 
to the school, and eight wagons are employed in the trans- 
portation. The campus has about three acres. Shade trees, 
school decoration, library, etc., will come. How easily that 
school can be made the social, literary, and musical center 
of the entire township ! What an inspiration it must be to 
a corps of teachers to work in such a community as that ! 

In the primary grade were all the little ones of the entire 
township in a beautiful room, while in the high-school room 
were many large farmer boys getting an education they 
could not otherwise obtain. On the playground all the big 
boys of the township play baseball. Think what it is to get 
all the boys of a township — country boys, I mean — on one 
playground. There will grow up a unity, and each boy, hav- 
ing studied and played with other boys of the entire town- 
ship, will be stronger for it. When the boys and girls of 
Green Township compete with those of Gustavus Township 
in football, baseball, or in literary contests, on athletic 
ground or in townhall, each team will have the backing of 
an enthusiastic township. In a great many districts there 
are hardly enough boys to play " two-cornered cat." Can 



CONSOLIDATION 



261 



you wonder that children get tired of district school after a 
certain age ? I am not sure that I have grasped the full 
significance of what we saw here, but if that is good for 
Ohio boys, why not the same for Illinois ? 

At the Green Township central school, where the new six- 
thousand-dollar brick building has been erected, I asked a 
high-school class how the roads were when they were bad. A 
young lady said they were " real bad," while a young man 




Fig. 120. The Centralized School at Gustavus Township, Trumbull 
County, Ohio 



said they sometimes found it necessary to put four horses 
to the wagon. The principal said that the people were pre- 
paring to improve the main roads over which the wagons 
ran. Thus better schools bring better roads. 

The day spent at Gustavus and Green township schools 
was by far the best one in the Western Reserve. As far 
as educational matters are concerned, the townships were 
far ahead of anything I had ever seen. 



262 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Mr. C. G. Williams, member of the Board of Education, 
Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, in the Sep- 
tember (1902) number of the OJiio Teacher has the follow- 
ing with reference to transportation : 

Nine covered wagons, built expressly for this purpose, with a view 
to comfort and health of occupants and owned by the route con- 
tractors, call at the home of every pupil in the morning and return 
every pupil to his home after school. Our routes vary in length from 
two and one-half to five miles, and cost us from sixty-eight cents to 
one dollar and fifty-five cents per day. These routes are let to the 
lowest responsible and satisfactory bidder. In the letting of routes 
the moral character of the contractor is taken into consideration, and 
he is put under strict bond not only to do the work, but is held 
responsible under the superintendent of schools for both the comfort 
and the moral condition and order in his wagon in transit. 

To many people the price at which we are able to let our routes 
is a matter of surprise. It should be remembered that during the 
greater part of the year both trips can be made in four hours or less. 
and that during the balance of the year, when more time is required, 
our contractors (usually farmers with few acres, who have to keep a 
team of horses anyhow) are not busy upon their farms. We have 
never yet had any trouble in letting our routes, and of late we have 
had enough routes to supply all who would like them. 

Before this system was put into operation some prospective patrons 
worried a little as to what might happen should a child be taken ill 
at school, in some instances a long way from home. Our Board of 
Education has thought best to provide against that trouble by con- 
tracting with a man to take any pupil immediately to his home that 
the superintendent thinks should for any reason go home. We have 
not as yet had to expend over three dollars any year for this purpose. 
It surely is a comfort to a parent to know that his child will be 
brought home if occasion demands it. 

Speaking of opposition, it should be recorded that when the propo- 
sition came before our voters for indorsement four years ago at our 
annual spring election, it was defeated upon a tie vote. Three weeks 
thereafter the same or a very similar proposition was submitted to our 



CONSOLIDATION 



263 



voters, and, with practically every vote in our township cast, centrali- 
zation was carried by a majority of only seventeen votes. It will be 
seen that public sentiment was pretty evenly divided and that the new 
system and the new school would have very many critics. 

Illinois has been behind other states in the matter of 
consolidation. It may not be too much to claim that our 
visit to Ohio and the publication of the account of our 




Fig. 121. The Centralized School at Lee's Creek, Wayne Township, 
Clinton County, Ohio 

investigations are the beginning of the renaissance of con- 
solidation for the Prairie State. The first consolidated 
country school in Illinois was dedicated in Seward Township, 
Winnebago County, January 30, 1904. The second school 
building as the result of consolidation is being erected in 
Johnson County in southern Illinois, where William M. 
Grissom, Jr., of Vienna, is county superintendent. The 
expectation was to be ready for school November, 1905. 
County Superintendent Dean, of Geneva, Kane County, 
northern Illinois, reports that in the newly consolidated 



264 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



district in that county the voters, by a vote of seventy-one 
for and twenty-nine against, voted to bond the district for 
six thousand dollars to erect a new building. The one in 
Johnson County costs five thousand dollars, while the one 
in Winnebago County cost six thousand dollars, with an 
additional expenditure of one thousand dollars for a site of 
3.6 acres of fine land. 

The first agitation for a consolidated school in Winne- 
bago County was in Seward Township on February 22, 1 899. 
At that time the writer gave an address in favor of con- 
solidation. The address 
was received with but 
little favor by the major- 
ity of the people. The 
new six-thousand-dollar 
building for the consoli- 
dated district was dedi- 
cated at the same place 
on January 30, 1904. 
This was one tangible 
result of a five years' 
educational campaign. 
The Seward consolidation is a beginning in a small way. 
The beginning in Ohio was at Kingsville in 1892, by tak- 
ing children from one subdistrict to the Kingsville school. 
No new building had to be erected. Even for this they had 
to get special legislation to allow the transportation, and 
so careful were they that the legislature said this could be 
done only in "any township which by the census of 1890 
had a population not less than seventeen hundred and ten 
or more than seventeen hundred and fifteen." Seemingly 
the people could not be trusted, as some think they cannot 




Fig. 122. An Abandoned Two-Story 
Brick Schoolhouse in Wayne Town- 
ship, Clinton County, Ohio 



CONSOLIDATION 265 

be now in Illinois when it comes to the matter of spending 
their own money to provide better school facilities for 
country children. 

The consolidated district in Seward Township, Winne- 
bago County, Illinois, is made up of old districts 90, 91, 
and 93. In area it is exactly one third of the township, 
which is six miles square. The new consolidated district con- 
tains twelve sections of land, or 7680 acres. The assessed 
valuation of districts, as made by assessment in 1902, is 
as follows : 

District 90 $5§>399 

District 91 52,790 

District 93 35,126 

Total $146,315 

The assessed value by the Illinois revenue law represents 
one fifth of the fair cash value. By that the value of the 
consolidated district is over seven hundred thousand dollars. 
Taxes are levied on assessed valuation, and since some of 
the land could not be bought for one hundred and fifty 
dollars per acre, it is not an exaggeration to say that the 
value of this consolidated district is nearly, if not quite, a 
round million of dollars. 

The assessed valuation of this consolidated district in 
1904 was $156,243, with a tax rate of $1.83 on the $100 
to pay all expenses of the school and first payment of 
bonds and interest. The Illinois school law permits a total 
levy of five dollars on every hundred dollars of assessed 
valuation for this purpose. Thus the tax rate for this new 
school is exactly one third of what the law allows. Coun- 
try people may have better country schools by spending more 
money in a better way. 



266 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



The consolidated school has a school year one month 
longer, employs four teachers, and does two years' high- 
school work. But, as was said before, suppose the total 
cost is more, better returns will come for money expended. 

The building has four rooms and a basement. In this 
basement, which extends under the entire structure, there 
are two large rooms which may, in the future, be utilized 
for a workshop and a manual training room. 

All the walls have been decorated in color, and a friend 
from Boston, Massachusetts, very generously donated pic- 
tures and casts, so that art education is beginning for these 
country children. His gifts were the following : 



Bust of Lincoln. 

" Cherubs Singing " — two pieces. 
" Morning." 
" Night." 

" Boys Playing Trumpets." 
" Boys Playing Drums." 
" Triumph of Alexander " — three 
pieces. 

Alma Tadema's " Reading from 

Homer." 
Bouguereau's "Homer and his 

Guide." 
Breton's " Song of the Lark." 
Corot's " Lake." 
Douglas's "Ancient Britons." 
Farquharson's "Over Snow 

Fields Waste and Pathless." 
Hock's " Fishing Boats." 
Homer's " Fog Warning." 
Hovenden's 

Ties." 



Landseer's " Distinguished Mem- 
ber of the Humane Society." 
Le Rolle's " By the Riverside." 
Van Marcke's " Water Gate." 
Millet's " Gleaners." 
Murillo's " St. John the Baptist." 
Plockhorst's "Guardian Angel." 
Pyle's "Washington in his Gar- 
den at Mt. Vernon." 
Raphael's " Sistine Madonna." 
Raphael's "Madonna of the 

Chair." 
Riecke's " Sunset Glow." 
Ruysdael's " Windmill." 
Turner's "Fighting Temeraire." 
Volkman's "Waving Wheat- 
field." 
Watts's " Sir Galahad." 
Waterlow's " Nursery." 
Portrait of Longfellow. 
Arch of Titus. 
Capitol at Washington, D.C. 



CONSOLIDATION 



267 



By centralization all the children of the township have 
the same chance for those higher educational advantages 
which, under the present plan, only five or ten per cent are 
able to get by leaving home and going to the city. With a 
central graded school and a high-school course the children 
can be at home evenings under the care of their parents. 
The people of the country districts are entitled to receive 
the fullest benefits for money expended. Better means of 
education, better training, stronger characters, — the pos- 
sibility of all these must appeal to every parent and to 
every public-spirited citizen of any community. The course 
of study may be so en- 
riched that all the farmer 
boys may be taught some 
of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of agriculture, hor- 
ticulture, etc., without 
sending them away to a 
university to learn what 
may be learned at home. 
Such a township high 
school, with good teach- 
ers, ought to be able to 




Fig. 123. Abandoned One-Room School- 
house in Wayne Township, Clinton 
County, Ohio 



teach the boys and girls something about the formation, 
composition, and care of the soil, rotation of crops, con- 
stituents of plants, and fruit growing. In compliance with 
the request of the State Farmers' Institute of Illinois, an 
elementary course in agriculture has been added to the state 
course of study for the common schools of Illinois. The 
farmers of Illinois are doing well in having a College of Agri- 
culture at the state university at Urbana. Let the influence 
of that work extend to every township in the way of an 



268 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



enriched course of study in the township union graded school, 
and one result will be that more boys and girls will go to 
the College of Agriculture. Reference was made in Chap- 
ter XI to the number of boys and girls over fourteen years 
old in one county. Out of a school population (between six 
and twenty-one) of 2714, for 106 one-room country schools 
there were only 167 boys over fourteen and 121 girls of 
the same age enrolled for the year ending June 30, 1905. 











^ 


Wm 


H^PS*'f : J 


/.. ' "~ ■■' -- 


--'-" ; ■''■ 


; '"; >%/; '^'? 


■"• :' : ' ' 






^ ^ ^-z&^r 








";;f~^\ 


**^B«3«& 


' . 



Fig. 124. An Old Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, 
Georgia 

Where are all the big boys and girls that used to be in 
all the country schools, as some of us used to know them ? 
During the same year there were enrolled in the six village 
high schools and. the city high school of Rockford 86 girls 
and 68 boys, a total of 154 country pupils paying tuition 
for high-school privileges. 

The following table shows the amount of high-school 
tuition the country people of Winnebago County have paid 
for ten years to have a part of the children educated away 
from home. 



CONSOLIDATION 



269 



These statistics are taken from the township treasurer's 
books : 



Year 


ROCKFORD 


Peca- 

TONICA 


Durand 


Rock- 
ton 


Winne- 
bago 


Roscoe 


Cherry 
Valley 


1895 


$1,523.21 


$300.25 


$229.93 


$18.00 


$204.00 


$33.10 


$2I.OO 


1896 


1,561.34 


201.82 


102.83 





121.25 


163-65 


*3-5° 


1897 


1,500.00 


3 J 3- 8 9 


88.84 


58.OO 


424.61 


137.06 


36.OO 


1898 


1,871.80 


258.54 


131.89 


54.OO 


249-57 


84.20 


78.OO 


1899 


1,655.61 


364.68 


112.02 





279-93 


135-20 


27.OO 


1900 


2,009.27 


346.00 


232.01 


54-40 


245.62 


116.30 





1901 


2,429.01 


346.00 


216.50 


33- 2 ° 


185.00 


62.10 


61.OO 


1902 


2,633.88 


346.00 


23S.25 


82.80 


215.20 


108.50 


1S.00 


1903 


3,902.72 


340.00 


' 147.50 


56.60 


115. 16 


63.00 





1904 


2,742.50 


444-55 


171.50 


68.00 


64.75 


129.20 


36.00 


Totals 


$21,829.34 


$3,261.73 


$1,671.27 


$425.00 


$2,105.09 


$1,032.41 


$291.00 



Grand total for ten years $30,615.84 



The above is not what the county superintendent says 
or thinks, but what treasurers' books show. This $30,6 1 5 .84 
will build four such buildings as the Seward Consolidated 
School building, with 3.6 acres for a site for each building, 
and enough will be left over to equip thirteen school wagons 
at a cost of $200 each. The Seward building cost $6000 
and the site $1000. This makes a total of $7000. Mul- 
tiply $7000 by 4, and the result is $28,000 ; subtract this 
amount from $30,61 5.84 — the amount of tuition the coun- 
try people have paid for the last ten years, — and the re- 
mainder is $2615.84. This will equip thirteen wagons at 
a cost of $200 each. Are the Seward people wise in their 
day and generation ? 

Or if each family provides its own transportation without 
public expense, as they do in Seward Township, this $2615.84 



270 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



would give $653.96 as a fund for a small manual training 
equipment for each of the four buildings. It has been 
shown that in Seward Township nineteen boys and seven- 
teen girls, each over fourteen years of age, a total of 




Fig. 125. A New Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia 

thirty-six large pupils, were enrolled in the consolidated 
school last year. There were twenty-seven nonresident 
pupils enrolled in that school, and their tuition amounted 
to $265.25, almost enough to meet the first annual interest of 
$280 on the bonded indebtedness of $7000 at four per cent. 

It is not enough to consolidate. After that is done the 
school must be developed along the line of country inter- 
ests. I do not want the evils of a graded system for the 
country consolidated school. If directed as it should be, 
the consolidated country school should offer the following 
advantages over the average country school : 

1. There will result the inspiration and interest that 
always come from numbers. A school of eight or ten 



CONSOLIDATION 



271 



pupils is not calculated to stimulate a boy or girl to do the 
best work. With only one in a class there is not that com- 
petition and rivalry which call forth all the powers of the 
child, — the preparation for the real struggle of life. 

2 . Stronger classes will thus be formed, giving the teacher 
more time for the recitation and for the necessary instruction. 

3. There will be better trained teachers for the country 
children, and these teachers will command and receive better 
salaries. 

4. There will result greater economy in school buildings 
and equipment. It will cost less to keep one central build- 
ing than several scattered schoolhouses, the first cost of 
the one central building not being as great as that of eight 




Fig. 126. An Old Academy at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia 

or ten scattered buildings. Besides, the children will have 
the influence of a modern, sanitary, well-ventilated, well- 
lighted, and well-heated building. The surroundings have 
perhaps quite as much to do in the education of the child 
as the subject-matter of the text-books. 



272 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

5. The school year for the country child will be length- 
ened. There will be high-school privileges. The attend- 
ance will be more regular. More pupils will use the money 
expended for education, and thus the per capita cost will 
be reduced. 

6. Such a school .will afford time and opportunity for 
systematic instruction in the elementary principles of agri- 
culture throughout the grades. With trained teachers 
working under the direction of the College of Agriculture, 
such a school will be able to meet the demand for instruc- 
tion in things relating to the farm. Here can be taught 
something with reference to feeding standards and selec- 
tion of stock, fruit growing and constituents of plants, 
rotation of crops, and composition and care of the soil. 
The consolidated school along these lines may become an 
experiment station, working under the direction of the 
expert investigators of the College of Agriculture. 

7. Consolidation will help to bring better roads. As it 
now is with us, the farmers always get their milk to a cen- 
tral creamery, if it takes four horses. Is not a child deserv- 
ing of as much consideration as a can of milk ? It is not 
at all difficult to hear of objections to consolidation. These 
may be summarized as follows : (1) It will cost too much ; 
(2) the roads are not suitable ; (3) the roads and weather are 
often unfit to take out a team ; (4) it is better for the chil- 
dren to walk ; (5) it compels a cold lunch at school ; (6) it will 
reduce the value of farm lands in the neighborhood of aban- 
doned schoolhouses ; (7) there is sentiment against remov- 
ing a the old schoolhouse "; (8) it will throw many teachers 
out of employment ; (9) it takes children too far from home. 

Superintendent R. P. Clark, of Ashtabula, Ohio, at the 
Special State Conference in the interests of country schools, 



CONSOLIDATION 



2 73 



held by the University of Illinois at Urbana, June 26-30, 
1905, discussed very fully the subject of transportation as 
it is in Ohio. They do not have hard roads there. A part 
of Superintendent Clark's paper is here given: 

There is no phase of the question of consolidation of country 
schools that is the subject of so much controversy and criticism as 
transportation. Transportation is the rock on which the consolidation 




Fig. 127. New Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia 



idea is most often wrecked. It is the one phase of the consolidation 
question that the average farmer in the country districts thinks he 
fully understands. Approach him on the subject of consolidation and 
he immediately turns the conversation along the line of transportation. 
Show him the benefits in general to be derived from consolidation 
and he gives evidence by his reply that he only considers the fact 
that he lives five or four or three or two miles from the center of the 
township. Paint him a picture of a township as a social and intel- 
lectual unit and he will only look at it from a distance of five or four 



274 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

or three or two miles. Call his attention to the broader, humanitarian 
side of consolidation and his poor neighbor cannot be brought into 
nearer focus than five or four or three or two miles. 

It never occurs to the average farmer that he is very likely preju- 
diced beyond a reasonable degree. His life, perhaps, has been very 
circumscribed and his horizon narrow. He is conservative to a remark- 
able extent. When any question is brought to his attention he at 
once, as does any other man, seizes upon that phase of it that is 
or seems most tangible and appeals most strongly to his interest. 
Therefore the average farmer sees in the question of consolidation 
of schools only one thing worthy of consideration, namely, transpor- 
tation. Meet this question and almost invariably the battle is won. 
Make other considerations of greater importance, as indeed they are, 
and the heaviest gun of the opposition is effectively spiked. . . . 

In the first place, it is necessary to say that in these discussions of 
consolidation of schools the townships considered are all five miles 
square, and while they present a variety of surface and soil, they are 
of the same size and are very similar in social conditions. They are 
in that part of Ohio known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, and 
the people are for the most part descendants of that sturdy New 
England and Pennsylvania stock that came into Ohio in the early 
part of the nineteenth century. The roads during a portion of the 
year are as bad as roads can be and still be roads. 

Road improvement has just reached Ohio and there is good pros- 
pect of better things, but in no township considered in reference to 
consolidation has the slightest attempt been made to improve the 
roads along the lines of modern methods. It is safe to say that the 
townships of northeastern Ohio can, in general, duplicate all the objec- 
tionable features standing in the way of consolidation found in this 
(Illinois) section of the country. . . . 

In a former chapter reference was made to a report of an 
important committee appointed by the National Educational 
Association at Boston, Massachusetts, July 9, 1903. This 
committee made a report in July, 1905. The report in 
pamphlet form is entitled " Report of the Committee on In- 
dustrial Education in Schools for Country Communities." 



CONSOLIDATION 



275 



In this report W. M. Hays, Assistant Secretary of Agri- 
culture, a member of the committee, has given an outline 
of a course of study for the consolidated country school, 
the agricultural high school, and the agricultural college, 
articulated in a unified scheme. Professor Hays did this 
upon the request of the committee. 

This is certainly a move in the right direction. It is time 
the gap between the country school and the college of 




Fig. 128. Old Schoolhouse, No. 2, at Williamsburg, North Carolina 



agriculture was filled. The agricultural high schools of 
Minnesota and Wisconsin do this in an ideal way; that is 
to say, the county agricultural high school stands in the 
same relation to the farm that the city high school does 
to the life in the city. 

The consolidated country school with a two years' high- 
school course goes a long way towards filling up this gap. 



276 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



I believe in the country high school with a course of study 
suited to the future life of the great majority of the boys 
and girls who attend such a school. 

Space does not allow me to give the course for the first 
eight grades as outlined by Professor Hays, nor that of the 
agricultural high school or college. Only the suggested 
course for two years of work in the high-school department 
of the consolidated country school is here given. In time 
this corresponds to the first two years of a first-class city 
high school doing four years' work. 



First-Year High-School Course in Consolidated 
Country School 



First Half Year 

Agricultural botany 4 

Elementary algebra 5 

English 4 

Drawing (farms and buildings) . 2 

Rhetoricals 1 

Country engineering (boys) . . 3 

Sewing (girls) 2 

Agriculture (girls) 1 



Second Half Year 

Agricultural botany 4 

Elementary algebra 5 

English 4 

Farm accounts 4 

Rhetoricals 1 

Fences and farm conveniences 

( bo y s ) • 2 

Cooking (girls) 2 



Second-Year High-School Course in Consolidated 
Country School 



Second Half Year 
Plane geometry . • . 



First Half Year 

Plane geometry 5 

Physiology (foods and feeds) . 4 

Civics 4 

General history 5 

Rhetoricals 1 

Judging stocks and seeds (boys) 1 

Carpentry 2) Carpentry . 

Sewing (girls) 2 Sewing (girls) 



English 

Agricultural mathematics . 

General history 

Rhetoricals 

Judging stocks and seeds (boys) 



CONSOLIDATION 



277 



It is the country child's right to have just as good an 
educational opportunity as that enjoyed by the most favored 
city child attending the public school. If the average coun- 
try school affords this opportunity both for elementary in- 
struction and high-school privileges, then the consolidated 
country school has not much claim. But if the average 




Fig. 129. Old Schoolhouse, No. 3, at Williamsburg, North Carolina 

country school does not afford this opportunity, then the con- 
solidated country school is worthy of earnest consideration. 

Let us enrich and enlarge life for the country child. 

Reference elsewhere has been made to a bulletin on the 
" Centralized Schools in Ohio," by Mr. A. B. Graham, Super- 
intendent of Agricultural College Extension Work, State 
University, Columbus. Some of the illustrations in this 
chapter are from that bulletin, namely, map of Ohio show- 
ing extent of centralization, map of Wayne Township, the 



278 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



$17,500 building in Wayne Township, two of the abandoned 
buildings in Wayne Township, and the centralized building 
in Gustavus Township. These speak for themselves with 
reference to this forward movement for the country child. 
The following, from Mr. Graham's bulletin, will convey 
to the reader a correct idea of the types of centralized 
schools in Ohio : 

1. In a few townships the subdistrict schools have been abandoned 
and the pupils conveyed to a village school centrally located. Such 
schools are found at Kingsville, Ashtabula County, and at Windham, 
Portage County. In Windham Township the Board of Education 
contracts with the village board of Windham for tuition. To Wood- 
stock, Champaign County, sixty pupils from four schools in Rush 






ft Kit I 




Fig. 130. The New Building for Nos. 2 and 3 Consolidated, Williams- 
burg, North Carolina 

Township are transported in three comfortable wagons at a cost of 
one hundred dollars per month. The pupils from seven out of eight 
subdistricts from Fulton Township, Fulton County, are transported 
to the village school at Swanton. 



CONSOLIDATION 



279 



2. In most completely centralized townships the central building, 
grounds, wagons, etc., belong to the township. In some places the 
wagons belong to the drivers or contractors. Such schools are to be 
found in Wayne Township, Clinton County ; Mad River Township, 




Fig. 131. 



The Interior of Schoolhouse, District 99, Winnebago 
County, Illinois 



Champaign County ; Copley Township, Summit County, and in about 
twenty others in northeastern Ohio (see map, Fig. 117). 

3. At Selma, Clark County, and at Bidwell, Gallia County, are 
special districts created to include territory sufficiently extensive to 
require the transportation of pupils to school. They are known as 
the Selma Special and the Porter-Bidwell Special, and are the only 
school districts in our state organized to comply with section 3934. 

4. The fourth type may hardly be considered centralized, but 
rather consolidated schools. Such are found in Madison Township, 
Lake County ; Salem Township, Champaign County ; Valley Town- 
ship, Scioto County; Liberty Township, Ross County, and in about 
thirty others. 

There are now 92 centralized and consolidated schools, divided 
as follows. One or two schools suspended and children transported to 
another school, 35; about one half or more of the township schools 
suspended, 25 ; nearly or completely centralized, 32. 



280 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Mr. Graham sent letters of inquiry to patrons asking 
several questions with reference to the working of the cen- 
tralized schools. The following are some of the questions 
with replies : 

" Does your child stand and wait for the wagon ? " Every reply 
so far is, " No." 

" Is it necessary to clothe your child as heavily for the winter trips 
as under the old plan ? " Seventy-five per cent answer, " No "; fifteen 
per cent, " No difference "; and ten per cent, "Yes." 

" Does your child attend school more regularly than under the old 
plan?" Eighty per cent answer, "Yes"; twenty per cent, " See no 
difference." 

" Does your child show increased interest above what it was under 
the old plan? " Ninety per cent answer, " Yes "; ten per cent answer, 
"No." 

" Do your teachers show an increased interest? " Ninety-five per 
cent answer, "Yes"; five per cent answer, "No" and "Notice no 
difference." 

" If it takes more time under the new way than the old plan, is it 
compensated for by better work ? " Eighty-five per cent answer, 
" Yes," and fifteen per cent, " Can't say " and " No." 

"What effect has the centralized or consolidated school on the 
social and educational interests of the township ? " Most who have 
answered said, "There has been a great improvement." One replied, 
" In the beginning it stirred up a great deal of trouble, but every- 
thing is going along nicely now." A few replied, " No improvement ; 
has not been established long enough to tell what it will do." 

The entire bulletin needs to be read to be appreciated. 
More than that, it is an inspiration to visit these schools 
and note their working at first hand. Mr. Graham points 
out two main difficulties in Ohio: 



i. Prejudice against a new thing and the sentiment that prompts 
us to quote "forty years ago," and to relate some of our childhood 



CONSOLIDATION 28 1 

experiences that are so vivid and so closely associated with the little 
weather-beaten schoolhouse, — which, when all sentiment is thrown 
by, did little more than house us, — sometimes prevent children from 
having modern advantages. 

2. Bad roads and negligent drivers. The use that is being made 
of roads by the rural mail carrier, by milk haulers, and others who 
travel them daily is arousing an interest in road building that will 
make them of greater service to all. A negligent driver should meet 
the same fate that some have already met, — immediate dismissal. 
Negligence on the part of the driver is no more excusable than for 
a teacher. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR COUNTRY 
SCHOOLS 

The writer is well aware that it is a very easy matter to 
find fault. It is not so easy to point out a sane remedy. 
There is no disposition in this chapter to belittle the work 
that is done to-day by the country school-teacher. Most 
of the country school-teachers with whom I am acquainted 
are earnest, enthusiastic, loyal, and progressive, and they 
are getting things done. Many of them, even with the low 
wages paid them, are attending summer sessions at normal 
schools and earnestly striving to attain greater skill and 
efficiency as teachers. There are some poor workmen in 
the country schools, but that is true everywhere. Perhaps 
the critical observer will claim that there is more poor teach- 
ing done in the country schools of the United States than 
in the graded schools. If this is true, we ask our critics to 
be charitable enough to temper their criticisms with some 
knowledge of the hindrances to the best work in the country 
schools. I will not attempt to enumerate them all, or to 
name them in the order of importance. These are a few : 

i. Insufficient supervision. 

2. Low wages and insecurity of position. 

3. Small schools with irregular attendance. 

4. Low educational ideals in many districts. 

5. Failure of normal schools to train teachers for the 
specific work of the country schools. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 283 

It is the last item that I wish to consider here. 

In the Prairie Farmer editorial on "fads," quoted in 
Chapter X, the editor says, " We hope that the educator 
will be wise enough to fit the school for either of these 
innovations (study of agriculture and domestic science in 
the country school) rather than attempt to fit them to the 
school." 

Now I suppose the term " educators " may be justly 
applied to the various members comprising the faculty of 
the normal school. They consider it their business to fit 
the school to do its work by fitting the teacher to con- 
duct the school properly in all its relations ; and the term 
"school" has always meant the city graded system, — that 
is, it has meant that until within the last two or three 
years or so. It is safe to say that the narrow limitation 
of the words "city graded school" will be denied by the 
average normal school. But all normal — state normal — 
schools that I am acquainted with, so far as their training 
schools are concerned, are affiliated with city systems, and 
all the instruction of student teachers — that is, practical 
wor k — is directed toward solving the problems of the city 
schools. 

It may be that the educators connected with normal 
schools do not consider the study of agriculture and domes- 
tic science as necessary for the country schools. If so, 
it must be confessed that they have plenty of company 
among the country people themselves, who do not yet see 
the possibilities of the new country school. But the lead- 
ers of agricultural thought do believe in these things, and it 
would seem that the leaders in pedagogical thought believe 
in them also, if one may judge from the recent expressions 
of some of them. 



284 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Superintendent Newell D. Gilbert, head of the training 
school connected with the Northern Illinois State Normal 
School at Dekalb, in discussing " The Sociological Basis 
of the Course of Study " at the Northern Illinois Teachers' 
Association at Kankakee, April 27-29, 1905, said : 

From all that has been, said, it is evident that social efficiency de- 
mands that the course of study in all its detailed outworking should 
be made a "local issue" ; that it should utilize the local community 
life, — its occupations, resources, organization, traditions, customs. The 
school should be consciously in touch with all. To-day the serious 
charge against it is its isolation as a realm of child life and its failure 
to articulate closely and smoothly with the home, the neighbor- 
hood, and the community at large. Only so can the realities of the 
larger life come to the child ; only so can the instruction of the 
school take on the reality needed to make it vigorously and practically 
effective. 

Now it seems to me that a state institution supported 
by public taxation should have a department that will fit 
teachers to " utilize the local community life " for the 
country school, and that some practical training should be 
given to country school-teachers and graduates from city 
high schools who expect to teach in the country school as 
to how to " articulate" the country school " closely and 
smoothly " with the country home, because only in this way 
can "the realities of the larger life" come to the country 
child. Only in this way can the "instruction" of the 
country school "take on the reality needed to make it 
vigorously and practically effective." 

But the normal schools may say : " Send on your coun- 
try school-teachers. They do not come to our halls." The 
country school-teacher who does go — not in large numbers 
as yet, it is true — replies : " I do not get any help for the 
specific problems of the country school. If I am allowed to 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



285 



teach in the practice school, it is in a graded school with 
forty-minute recitation periods and the content of the course 
of instruction along city interests. I need help on how to 
organize a country school of fourteen pupils with twenty- 
six daily recitations, and how to get the most out of a 
seven-minute recitation in geography," etc. 

Thus the difficulties of the situation are apparent. 

It is reported that, during the last General Assembly of 
Illinois, the country members of the legislature objected to 




Fig. 132. The Wisconsin Training School at Menomonie 



voting for appropriations, to any great extent, for the state 
normal schools on the plea that the country, as distin- 
guished from the city, did not derive any direct appreciable 
benefit from them. Yet the farms paid a large per cent 
of the public tax for the maintenance of schools that are 
supposed to help the entire school system. All of the above, 
or words to that effect, led to the passage of an act to 
quiet the complaint of the country lawmaker and taxpayer. 



286 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Just how much good it will do remains to be seen. The 
legislators recognize that something is wrong, for the first 
section says, "that in order to equalize the advantages 
of the state normal schools there," etc. But the entire 
act is here given, followed by a brief comment. This act 
took effect July I, 1905. No definite plans have yet been 
formulated to make the law fulfill the mission for which it 
was passed. 



Normal Scholarship 
An act to provide for scJwlarsJiips for graduates of the eighth grade 

Section i. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois 
represented in the General Assembly: That in order to equalize the 
advantages of the state normal schools, there shall be awarded 
annually, to each school township or fractional township, a scholar- 
ship which shall entitle the holder thereof to gratuitous instruction in 
any state normal school for a period of four years : Provided that 
any township having a population exceeding one hundred thousand 
inhabitants shall be entitled to five scholarships. 

Section 2. The county superintendent shall receive and register 
the names of all applicants for such scholarships, and shall hold an 
examination, or cause an examination to be held, in each township 
for the benefit of graduates of the eighth grade : Provided that where 
a township is divided by county lines the county superintendent in 
whose county the sixteenth section is situate shall have charge of the 
examination in such township. 

Section 3. All examinations shall be held on the second Sat- 
urday of May in each year, according to rules and regulations pre- 
scribed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the pupil 
found to possess the highest qualifications shall be entitled to such 
scholarship : Provided, however, that such pupil shall be a resident 
of the township in which such examination is held : and provided, 
further, that where no application is received from any township the 
county superintendent shall assign the pupil found to possess the next 
highest qualifications to that township. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 287 

Section 4. The county superintendent shall certify the names 
and addresses of all successful applicants, with the number (and 
range) of the township to which each pupil is accredited, to the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall issue to each pupil 
a certificate of scholarship which shall be accepted by the authorities 
of any state normal school in lieu of any entrance examination, and 
shall exempt the holder thereof from the payment of tuition or any 
term, matriculation, or incidental fee whatsoever. 

Section 5. Section 7 of an act for the establishment and main- 
tenance of a normal university, as amended ; Section 13 of an act to 
establish and maintain the Southern Illinois Normal University; 
Section 13 of an act to establish and maintain the Northern Illinois 
State Normal School; Section 13 of an act to establish and maintain 
the Eastern Illinois State Normal School; and Section 13 of an act 
to establish and maintain the Western Illinois State Normal School, 
are hereby repealed. 

[Approved May 12, 1905.] 

It is the plan of State Superintendent Bayliss to have a 
conference of the normal-school people and the county super- 
intendents to settle on some plan for awarding scholarships. 
If this act results in many eighth-grade pupils attending the 
state normal schools, and if the normal schools give these 
eighth-grade pupils the proper training, then future country 
legislators can have no just ground for complaint. 

In my humble judgment the possibilities of this law will 
not be attained if it merely results in a number of eighth- 
grade pupils getting free high-school privileges at a state 
normal school. It may fairly be questioned whether a 
state normal school should have a his^n school at all, in view 
of a greater work needed in the way of training student 
teachers to become efficient teachers. It remains to be seen, 
of course, whether the offer of a high school will induce 
many parents to send children away from home to get 
this high-school work. It may be claimed, to use a local 



288 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

illustration, that the country children of Winnebago County 
can get as good high-school training at the city high school 
of Rockford as at any state normal school of Illinois. To 
be sure, the pupils must pay tuition to the local school, 
but doubtless many of them prefer to do this, since with 
the facilities in the - way of electric roads and the like 
they are able to board at home. What is needed on the 
part of the normal school to make this law most effective 
is a course of training and study that will enable these 
eighth-grade pupils to do fairly good work at the end of 
one year, — something similar to what the country training 
schools of Wisconsin are doing for the country schools. 
If these eighth-grade pupils can be induced to remain two 
years, all the better. There is no doubt that some high- 
school extension is needed badly in Illinois, but it does 
not seem proper to have it come via the state normal 
school, if by coming that way it is a substitute for normal 
training for the student teachers who will teach in the one- 
room district schools of the state. 

But I have no doubt that the coming conference will agree 
on some plan to get out of the law all that was intended. 

The reader is doubtless aware of most of the principal 
problems the inexperienced teacher meets with in carry- 
ing out the organization and administration of the average 
country school. I need not enlarge upon them here. A 
small school may be one of the best of schools, if the 
teacher has been trained to make the most of the material 
and the time. I give here a daily programme of an average 
country school of Winnebago County. The school has an 
enrollment of twelve pupils, with a daily attendance of nine. 
The teacher is a graduate of a local village high school 
with a four years' course of study. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 
Daily Programme 



289 





Length 


Pupils 




Length 


Pupils 


Subject 


of Reci- 


in Each 


Subject 


of Reci- 


in Each 




tation 


Class 




tation 


Class 


Forenoon 






Afternoon 






Opening Exercises . 


10 min. 


all 


Opening Exercises 


5 mill. 


all 


Primer 


10 " 


1 


Primer .... 


10 " 


1 


Second Reader (a) . 


10 " 


3 


Second Reader (a) 


10 " 


3 


« «. (d). 


10 " 


1 


» (b) 


10 " 


1 


Fourth Reader (a) . 


10 " 


3 


First Physiology . 


10 " 


2 


« (3) . 


10 " 


2 


Second " 


10 " 


3 


Literature .... 


J 5 " 


1 


U.S. History . . 


10 " 


1 


Language .... 


r 5 " 


2 


First Geography . 


10 " 


2 








Second " 


10 " 


3. 








Third 


10 " 


1 


Recess 


10 " 


1 


Recess 






Numbers .... 


15 " 


4 


Primer .... 


10 " 


1 


Arithmetic Reader. 


10 " 


3 


Arithmetic Reader 


15 " 


4 


First -Arithmetic 


10 " 


1 


First Grammar. . 


10 " 


3 


Third 


10 " 


3 


Second " 


10 " 


1 


Second " 


15 " 


all 


" Spelling 


10 " 


2 


Writing .... 






Third 


10 " 


1 

















The reader at once suggests a reduction in the number 
of classes, so that there would be only one second-reader 
class, one fourth-reader class, and one physiology class. 
That depends upon the local circumstances, as every one 
acquainted with a country school knows full well. 

One more programme is given. This is from a school 
that last year had three different teachers during the 
school year of eight months. One pupil in the school 
desired first-year high-school work, so a graduate of the 
Rockford High School taught the following programme 
for two months. The school had an enrollment of ten 
pupils, with a daily attendance of eight. 



290 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Daily Programme 





Length 


Pupils 






Length 


Pupils 


Subject 


of Reci- 


in Each 




Subject 


of Reci- 


in Each 




tation 


Class 






tation 


Class 


Forenoon 








Afternoon 






Opening Exercises . 


io min. 


all 


A. 


Algebra . 


io min. 


I 


B. Reading . . . 


10 " 


I 


C. 


Geography . . 


7 " 


I 


G. 




10 " 


2 


D. 


. . 


S " 


I 


D. 




IO " 


I 


E. 


Physiology . . 


IO " 


2 


C. 




10 " 


I 


B, 


C. " 


10 " 


2 


F. 




10 " 


2 


E. 


Language . 


IO " 


2 


E. 




IO " 


2 


G. 


Spelling . 


5 " 


I 


B. Arithmetic 




IO " 


I 


A. 


Physical Geog- 






A. Latin . . 




IO " 


I 




raphy . . 


IO " 


I 








E. 


Geography . . 


IO " 


2 


Recess 


l S " 






Recess 


15 " 




D. Arithmetic . . 


IO " 


I 


B. 


History . . . 


10 " 


I 


C. 




IO " 


I 


C. 


... 


10 " 


[ 


B. Language 




5 " 


I 


F. 


Spelling . . . 


10 " 


2 


G. Arithmetic 




IO " 


2 


B, 


C, D. Spelling . 


*5 " 


3 


F. 




IO " 


2 


D. 


History . . . 


10 " 


1 


E. 




IO " 


I 


E. 


Spelling . . . 


10 " 


2 


D. Language 




IO " 


I 


A. 


Commercial 






B. Geography 




IO " 


I 




Arithmetic 


10 " 


1 



Here are thirty-two daily recitations, nineteen of them 
having one pupil each and twelve having two pupils each. 

To the state of Indiana, so far as I know, belongs the 
honor of having a model country training school in con- 
nection with the State Normal School at Terre Haute. 
This school has been in successful operation for two years. 
It is a typical country school, presenting the usual pecul- 
iarities and difficulties of such a school. It is located six 
miles east of Terre Haute on the interurban electric road 
between Terre Haute and Brazil. Part of the expense of 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



291 



running this school is borne by the State Normal School 
and part by the township in which the school is situated. 
This school is used by the students of the Indiana State 
Normal School as an observation and practice school, the 
students going there on the interurban cars. One provi- 
sion of the agreement between the trustees of the normal 
school and the trustees of the township in which this 




Fig. 133. A Model Country School connected with the Indiana 
State Normal. School 



model country school is situated is "that the teacher dur- 
ing the seven months of the school year (the period during 
which the schools of the township continue) shall be paid 
the maximum salary by the trustees and a certain fixed 
amount in addition by the Board of the Indiana State Nor- 
mal School, and that during the continuance of the school 
beyond the seven months, so as to complete the period of 
ten months, the teacher shall be paid by the Board of the 



292 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Indiana State Normal School." This school is equipped. as 
it should be, and is designed to show what a country school 
should be and what can be done there in the way of effect- 
ive work. The following very interesting and valuable 
letter is self-explanatory. 

Indiana State Normal School, 
Terre Haute, Indiana, July 26, 1905 

Superintendent O. J. Kern, Rockford, Illinois 

Dear Mr. Kern /It affords me pleasure to furnish you the infor- 
mation you request concerning the country training school which is 
connected with our school. 

Answers to questions : 

1. Number of children enrolled ? Ans. Fifty-two. 

Note. This enrollment was too large, but could not be avoided 
last year. We have an understanding that the enrollment is not to 
exceed about thirty, on account of accommodations. 

2. Average attendance ? Ans. Forty. 

Note. This is for ten months, and six graduated at the middle of 
the year. 

3. Qualifications of training teacher in charge? Ans. She is a 
high-school graduate and a graduate of the Normal College at Ypsi- 
lanti, Michigan. 

4. Salary of training teacher? Ans. She is paid by township 
trustee fifty-five dollars per month, and by the normal school board 
fifty dollars per month. Total, one hundred and five dollars per 
month. 

5. How do student teachers get to this school? Ans. The students 
get to school by means of the interurban car. It costs them twenty 
cents per round trip. 

6. How many student teachers at a time do observation work at 
this country training school? Ans. Every student who reaches the 
practice work in the normal school spends from one to three weeks 
in observation and teaching in the training school. They are sent there 
in groups of from eight to fifteen, as the circumstances determine. 
Then observation classes are taken there for observation in a body, 
depending upon the size of the class, but they are only taken there 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



293 



a few times in a term (three months). Other students, by their 
request, are allowed to observe as often as they wish. This is all 
under the direction of the Department of Methods, Observation, and 
Practice in the normal school. 

7. Something in general of the character of the work done in this 
school? A us. The effort is to make this a first-class country school. 
They follow the course made by the state superintendent for such 
schools and try to do the work in accordance with the principles of 
education. We endeavor to do as good work there as we do in the 
city training school. The teacher is just as careful about her assign- 
ments and her presentation as if she had only one grade to teach. 

8. The course of study for this school? Aris. The regularly 
adopted state course. 

Note. This is so from choice. We have the right to modify it if 
we wish, but, as I said, our aim is to conduct a first-class country 
school according to the science of education under the conditions 
they have given them. 

9. Daily programme: 



8. 30 Opening Exercises. 

S.45 Penmanship (all grades). 

8.55 Music (grades 1-4 and 5-7). 

9.05 Reading (second grade). 

9.15 Reading (first grade). 

9.30 Arithmetic (seventh grade). 

9.45 Arithmetic (fourth grade). 
10.00 Arithmetic (third grade). 
10.15 Arithmetic (first grade). 
10.30 Recess. 

fGeography (seventh 
10.45 ^ g ra -de), or History (sec- 

L ond and third grades). 
1 1. 00 Arithmetic (second grade). 
1 1. 10 Spelling orReading(seventh 

grade). 
11.25 Reading (fourth grade). 
11.40 Spelling (third grade). 
11.50 Spelling (first grade). 
11.55 Spelling (second grade). 
12.00 A T oou Intermission. 



12.40 
12.50 

1.05 



■45 



3-3° 



Reading (first grade). 
Grammar (seventh grade). 
Spelling (fourth grade). 
Language (second and third 

grades). 
Geography or History (fourth 

grade). 
PhysiologyorReading (seventh 

grade). 
Reading (third grade). 
Arithmetic (second grade). 
Reading (first grade). 
Physical Culture (all grades). 
Language (fourth grade). 
History or Geography (seventh 

grade). 
Nature Study (second and 

third grades). 
History or Geography (third 

grade). 
Discussion with student teachers. 



294 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Note. The above programme is frequently varied to accommodate 
the work of the normal students. 

10. What expense to students who attend, in the way of tuition, 
etc. ? Ans. None except their car fare to and from school. 

ii. What do you regard as the most important features of this 
school ? Ans. First, that it affords an opportunity for student teachers 
to study the country-school problem in a first-class school ; second, it 
furnishes a good standard country-school work for teachers and school 
officers to visit, and thus gradually elevates the standard of country- 
school work ; third, it meets in a practical way the question we are 
asked so often in our normal classes, — " This theory may be all right 
for city schools, but will it work in the country schools ? " 

Note. That the school is accomplishing something under the 
second point may be seen from the following facts : first, during the 
last school year (ten months) there were three hundred and twenty- 
three visitors to this school ; second, they were from eleven different 
counties of Indiana (some of the near counties have sent all their 
teachers for a day's visit in the school); third, several were from Illi- 
nois and one from Buenos Ayres, South America. 

A T ote. It is fair to say that the one from South America did not come 
to Terre Haute for the purpose of visiting the country training school. 
Now if I have provoked any other questions, I should be glad to 
answer them if I can. I will mail photos as soon as finished. 

Very truly yours, 

A. R. Charman, 

Head of Departme7it of Jl/et/iods, 
Observation, and Practice 

Perhaps Illinois is to have the second model country 
school in connection with a state normal school ; for State 
Superintendent Alfred Bayliss, President of the Board of 
Trustees of the Western Illinois Normal School, in a letter 
to me dated July 22, 1905, says : 

You can say that the training school at Macomb is a very com- 
plete one and has as part of its organization a typical country school, 
located in the country, and in which one of the most competent critic 
teachers is employed. This school is available for observation purposes 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



295 



to all students of the normal school, and some practice in it is 
required of every graduate. There is also a school for individual 
instruction, to which pupils of the grades, up to a certain number, 
who may have become irregular and unclassifiable by reason of sick- 
ness, other necessary absence from school, indolence, or slow devel- 
opment are admitted, and whatever is necessary to help them over 
temporary rough places is done. 

The reader will note that in the cases of model country 
schools in Indiana and Illinois the location is in the coun- 
try, in country environment. One may say, Why not 




Fig. 134. An Interior View of the Model Country School connected 
with the Indiana State Normal School 



build a model country-school building on the campus of 
the normal school and take the children there from some 
district school in the country ? Such a school is not a 
country school. It is not in country environment. The 
same objections hold here that obtain in the proposal to 
consolidate surrounding country districts with a large city 
and send the country child to the city school by wagon 
or trolley line. We must not give up the country school. 



296 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

If it is a consolidated school, let it be a consolidated coun- 
try school. A small village of one hundred and fifty or 
two hundred people is essentially country. 

Wisconsin has gone one step farther by establishing county 
training schools for county schools. These training schools 
exist for a specific purpose, namely, to train teachers for 
the work of teaching in the one-room district school. 

State Superintendent Gary, of Wisconsin, says of these 
county training schools : 

It may be said without exaggeration that counties which main- 
tain these county training schools have, as a general thing, a corps 
of country teachers above the average in efficiency. In the immediate 
future, without doubt, more of them will be established. In addition 
to the training of teachers to do actual teaching in the country 
schools, these county training schools have become feeders for the 
state normal schools, and have furnished a very desirable product. 
The course of study consists of branches that are required to be 
taught in the common schools. 

The counties of Buffalo, Dunn, Marathon, Manitowoc, 
Richland, Waupaca, and Wood, in 1904 maintained county 
training schools. 

Course of Study for Dunn County Training School 

First Quarter Third Quarter 

Reading, Orthoepy. History, Manual. 

Arithmetic, Manual. Civics. 

Grammar, English Composition, Geography, Physical. 

Manual. Physiology. 
Psychology. 

Second Quarter Fourth Quarter 

Reading, Manual. History. 

Arithmetic. Geography, Manual. 

Grammar, English Composition, Observation and Practice. 

Manual. Agriculture. 
Theory and Art Teaching. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 297 

Library readings and rhetoricals given throughout the course. 

Spelling and penmanship given as needed. 

Algebra will be allowed to those who apply for it and whose regu- 
lar work will permit. 

The normal is to prepare teachers for the rural schools of Dunn 
County, and tuition is free to students of the county. Nonresidents 
are charged forty dollars a year tuition. Nonresidents are admitted 
on the same basis as other students when there is room. 

It was my pleasure to attend the graduating exercises of 
the Dunn County Training School in June, 1905. The 
practical benefit of these schools can be best understood 
from those at work in them. Here follows the report of 
the principal of the Dunn County Teachers' Training 
School at Menomonie for the year ending June 30, 1904 : 

To the County Superintendent, H. E. Layne, Dunn County, Wis- 
consin : 

Permit me to render to you the fifth annual report of the Dunn 
County Teachers' Training School. 

The total enrollment for the year has been seventy-four. Had 
there been no limitations placed upon applicants by an entrance 
examination, there would have been an enrollment of about ninety. 

The school has graduated thirty-seven students this year, twenty- 
four of whom taught during the spring term. These twenty-four com- 
pleted the course in April, but did not take their diplomas until the 
close of the year, June 24. We hear their work well spoken of by 
the patrons of the several districts where they have taught. 

The number of graduates produced by the training school since 
it started is one hundred and forty-eight. Of this number ten have 
worked for a season in the schools ; two have gone to the Superior 
State Normal, three to Stevens Point, and five to River Falls. 

The presidents of these schools have each made a satisfactory 
report upon the attainments of these students upon entering these 
state schools. Each of the ten has entered the normal without being 
required to take an entrance examination, and four have completed 
the elementary course. 



298 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

We have undertaken a measure this year which seems to have 
given a great stimulus to the teaching power of our students in the 
country schools. Through the wisdom of the local board, it was 
made possible for the training-school faculty to spend some time in 
visiting our student body while at actual work in their several schools. 
Thirty-six of these visits were made where they seemed to be most 
needed. It is the judgment of the principal that no better service has 
ever been rendered to the schools of Dunn County. 

We believe the school has done a strong year's work, and it 
is sufficiently popular in the state and county to warrant its con- 
tinuance. 

There are about thirty-five this year's students who are held over 
into next year, besides thirty applicants to date, who have notified the 
principal of their intention to take the entrance examination next 
fall. Many more will write next fall than have applied this time. 

Respectfully yours, 

W. L. Morrison 

The expense of these county training schools is borne 
jointly by the state and the county in which the school is 
located. Michigan is following the lead of Wisconsin in 
establishing county training schools. 

At Menomonie, Wisconsin, during the summer of 1905, 
the Dunn County School of Agriculture, a different insti- 
tution from the County Training School or the Menomonie 
City School, conducted a teachers' institute and summer 
school for teachers of common schools. The following out- 
line indicates the character of the work done : 



Summer-School Topics in Domestic Economy 

Home economy : General care of the home ; drainage around 
house ; arrangement of house ; care of rooms (sweeping, 
dusting, etc.); floors and their treatment; walls and wall 
coverings ; ventilation of house ; household pests. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



299 



II. Sewing: Hand needlework; all stitches used in plain sewing; 
mending, patching, and darning ; sewing on buttons ; button- 
holes. 
III. Cooking: Kitchen range; fire; draughts; oven tests; foods. 
Principles of cooking ; experiments to show effect of heat 

on eggs, meats, etc.; composition of foods. 
Proteids, or tissue-building foods, as casein of milk, albumen 
of egg^ albumen of meat, gluten of wheat. 




Fig. 135. A Teachers' Training School at Menomonie, Wisconsin 

Carbohydrates, or energy-producing foods, as starches of 

potato, wheat and other grains. Iodine test for starch. 
Fats, or heat-producing foods. 
Water, — -its value in the diet. 
IV. Food sets : Their preparation. Food sets are to show the rela- 
tive amounts of the various nutriments in our common foods. 
V. Laundry work : Removal of stains; fixation of colors; wash- 
ing powders and bluings ; treatment of silks, flannels, laces, 
embroideries, etc. 
VI. Emergencies: Hemorrhages ; dressing of wounds ; bandaging ; 
treatment of burns ; fire ; drowning ; poisons and antidotes. 
VII. School hygiene : Ventilation of schoolroom ; lighting of school- 
room ; position of pupils. 



300 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Topics in Agriculture for School-Teachers 

I. Practice and principles of pruning. 
1 1 . Practice and principles of grafting; starting home fruit gardens. 

III. Methods of seed testing. 

IV. Treatment of grains for prevention of smut. 
V. Treatynent of potatoes for prevention of scab. 

VI. Simple spraying mixtures. 
VII. Treatment of clover and other legumes with nitrogen-fixing 
bactej-ia. 
VIII. Plans for school gardens : How to lay out and prepare ground : 
what plants and seeds to use, and how; where to secure 
plants and seeds free ; the question of tools; care of growing 
garden plants. 
IX. Planning school grounds for improvei?ient and beauty : What 
to plant and how to get plants ; where to plant vines, trees, 
shrubs, etc.; how to plant and care for plants. 
Ten to two hundred or less of the best experiments concerning 
soils, crops, weeds, insects, diseases, etc., outlined in Rural School 
Agriculture. (This manual is available free for all rural districts in 
Dunn County.) 

Topics in Manual Training for all School-Teachers 

I. Woodwork : Simple preliminary exercises introducing the knife, 
ruler, square, saw, hammer, plane, chisel, brace bit, etc. (Dunn 
County rural schools have the free use of a number of suitable 
and excellent tool sets, through the beneficent interest of Sen- 
ator Stout.) 

The woodwork to conform to the environment of the country 
boy or girl, and to be of such practical nature as to com- 
mend the work to the country patron. 
II. Models in woodwork : Plant label, fish-line winder, pencil sharp- 
ener, book rack, sled, pen rack, mail box, desk letter bo*x, bushel 
box, applied models of schoolroom ventilation. 
III. Rope tying and splicing : The long splice, valuable on the farm 
for mending hay ropes. 

Tying knots : Knots for end of rope, the square knot, the bow- 
line, half hitch, and timber hitch. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 30 1 

IV. Paper and card work: Perceptional cutting: massive objects ; 
smaller objects grouped to show social ideas ; free cutting of 
familiar objects. 
Conceptional cutting: Poses; animals; animals in action; 

figures illustrating familiar songs, stories, trades, and games. 
Symmetrical cutting : Half fold (geometrical forms of familiar 

objects) ; fourth fold and eighth fold (ditto) ; geometrical 

forms repeated to make simple border and center designs ; 

weather signals. 

The Normal School at New Paltz, New York, has begun 
a series of important educational conferences for the pur- 
pose of helping the country school to become the power 
that it should be in the new country life now upon us. 
The country school-teachers, school officers, and influential 
patrons are invited to confer with the normal-school faculty 
regarding the best means of promoting the welfare of 
the country districts, — of enabling the country school to 
vitalize the lives of the young people living on the farms, 
— and how a normal school can help in this work. 

Some of the subjects being considered are the prepara- 
tion of normal-school students in manual training, home 
science, and in important branches of agriculture and 
handicraft ; the institution of traveling libraries from school 
to school ; the improvement of school buildings and the 
beautifying of school grounds ; the school garden, etc. 

A course of lectures in contemporary educational prob- 
lems was given recently at Teachers College, Columbia 
University, New York City. The following bibliography 
was prepared by Principal Myron Scudder, of the New 
Paltz Normal School, for use in his lecture on Country 
Schools and the Teaching of Agriculture : 



302 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Bibliography 

List of articles on consolidation, centralization, transportation, etc. 
(very comprehensive and carefully compiled by State Superintend- 
ent Fowler, of Nebraska), National Educational Association report, 
l 9°3, pages 924-929. 

" Bibliography of School Gardens," Carter, State Normal School, 
Greeley, Colorado, March, 1904. 

Reports of the National Educatio7ial Association 

" The Rural-School Problem." Circular of Information No. 5 (Sabin 

et a/.), July, 1895. 
Report of the Committee of Twelve, pages 383-385, 1897. 
Report of the Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for 

Rural Communities (published in separate pamphlet), 1905. 
(See also the index in reports for 1894, 1895, 1897, 190 1, 1903, and 

1904.) 

Reports of the Com?nissioner of Education 
Year Volume Page Subject 

1 893- 1 894 I 288-289 " School Gardens in Berlin Common 

Schools." 
1894-1895 I 380-403 " Rural Schools in Germany." 

II 1457-1467 " The School District." 
II 1 469-1 482 " Conveyance of Children to School." 
1895-1896 II 1199-1206 " How Agriculture is Taught in Prussia 

and France." 
1 353 " Transportation of Children to School." 
1896-1897 I 79 " Rural Schools in Denmark." 

I 81 1-873 Report of the Committee of Twelve. 

II 1535 "Conveyance of Children to School." 

1897-1898 I 224 "School Gardens in Europe." 

II 1614 "Instruction in Agriculture in the Nor- 

mal Schools of France." 
II 1623 " Gardener's Schools in Russia." 

II ^23 "School Gardens in Russia." 

II 1 70 1 " Conveyance of Children to School.' 



Year Volume 
1898-1899 I 
I 899-I 900 II 
II 


Page 
I067-I082 

1447 

2581 


I90I 




l6l-2I2 


1902 




650 
752-754 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 303 

Subject 

School Gardens." 
School Gardens in Sweden." 
Transportation of Pupils to School." 
Consolidation of Schools and Trans- 
portation of Pupils." 
Agriculture in Rural Schools." 
Agricultural Schools in Italy." 

Foreign Reports 

1902 New South Wales: Department of Public Instruction, con- 

ference of inspectors, etc., pages 122, 143, 158. 

1903 New South Wales : Interim report of the commissioners on 

certain parts of primary education, pages 66, 78, 95, 100, 
116, 117, 119. 

1904 New South Wales: Report of the Minister of Public Instruc- 

tion for the year 1903, pages 87, 92, 98, 108, 113, 133, 134. 
Rapports du jury internationale : Groupe 1, Education et 
enseignement. Premiere Partie — Classe 1. See references 
to Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Finland, 
and Hungary. 

The Rural-School Problem. 

" Rural Schools : Progress in the Past ; Means of Improvement in the 
Future." Circular of Information No. 6, Bureau of Education, 1884. 

" Some Problems of the Rural Common School." A. C. True. Re- 
print from the yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1901. 

" Study of the Rural Schools of Maine." Superintendent Stetson, 
1895. 

" The Rural-School Problem in Massachusetts." Fletcher, agent of 
Massachusetts Board of Education. 

" Evolution of the Rural-School System : Present Status in Michigan." 
Burnham, in Proceedings of fifty-second annual meeting Michigan 
State Teachers' Association, 1905. 

" Rural Schools and how to Improve Them," and other articles. Insti- 
tute Bulletin No. 11, State Board of Agriculture, Michigan, 1905. 

"Conditions and Needs of Iowa Rural Schools." State Superintend- 
ent Riggs, Des Moines, Iowa. 



304 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Rural Sociology 

" Social Problems of the Farmer." Publications of the Michigan 
Political Science Association, Ann Arbor, Vol. IV, No. 6, July, 
1902. $1.00. 

"Federation of Rural Social Forces" (reprint). Butterfield, American 
League for Civic Improvement, Chicago. 

" Social Phases of Agricultural Education." Butterfield, American 
Journal of Sociology, Vol. X, No. 5, March, 1905. 

" Social Phases of Agricultural Education." Butterfield, Popular Sci- 
ence Monthly, August, 1905. 



Consolidation and Transportation 

" Consolidation, etc., and the Conveyance of Children." Fletcher, 
Massachusetts Board of Education. 

" Consolidation," etc. State Superintendent Cary. See eleventh 
biennial report of the Department of Public Instruction, Wis- 
consin, 1902-1904. 

" Consolidation of Country Schools." University of Illinois Bulletin, 
Vol. II, No. 3, December, 1904. 

" Report of a Visit to the Centralized Schools of Ohio." Superintend- 
ent O. J. Kern, Rockford, Illinois. See also his annual reports for 
1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1905 (especially 1905), profusely 
illustrated. 

School Gardens 

Nature Leaflets, Nos. 29, 30, 31, and 32. Massachusetts State Board 
of Agriculture. 

" Philadelphia School Gardens." Civic Club, Philadelphia. 

" Municipal School Gardens." Board of Public Education, Phila- 
delphia. 

" School Gardens." B. T. Galloway, United States Department of 
Agriculture, Bulletin No. 160, 1905. 

" How to Make School Gardens." Hemenway. Doubleday, Page & 
Co. $1.00. 

" Hints and Helps for Young Gardeners." Hemenway. 35 cents. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 



305 



" School-Garden Movement." Spillman, Reports of American Civic 
Association, Philadelphia, Vol. VI, Part III; and Vol. VII, 
Part III. 25 cents each. 

Teaching Agriculture in Country Schools 

Report of Commissioner on Teaching Agriculture, etc. Circular No. 32, 
United States Department of Agriculture. 

" Elementary Agriculture in our Public Schools." Dumas, The 
Normal Seminar, State Normal School, Cheney, Washington. 50 
cents. 

"Agricultural Instruction in District Schools." Report of State Super- 
intendent Harvey, Wisconsin, 1902. 

Bulletin of Information No. 8. Issued by Superintendent Harvey, 
1902. 

"Rural School Agriculture." Bulletin No. 1, Department of Agricul- 
ture, University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Park, Minnesota. 




Fig. 136. Teacher and Pupils in a Rural School 
in Dunn County, Wisconsin 



Courses of Study and Methods of Instruction, including Agricultttre 
and Nature Study 

" Course of Study for the Common Schools of Illinois " (third gen- 
eral revision), August, 1903. Published by C. M. Parker, Taylor- 
ville, Illinois. 25 cents. 

" Course of Study for Elementary Schools." New York State Educa- 
tional Department, Albany, 1905. 

" Manual for the Use of Members of County Teachers' Institutes." 
State of Maine, Educational Department. 



306 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Helps for Teachers — Bulletins, etc. 

"The Nature Guard" (monthly). Rhode Island College of Agricul- 
ture, Kingston, Rhode Island. 

" Reading Course for Farmers." Cornell University Agricultural 
Experiment Station. 

" Reading Course for Farmers' Wives." Cornell University Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station. 

" Teachers' Leaflets on Nature Study." Cornell University Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station. 

"The Study of Farm Crops" (monthly). University of Illinois. 
Published by C. M. Parker, Taylorville, 111. 25 cents per year. 

Also free bulletins from Illinois Experiment Station, Urbana, Illinois ; 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Madison, Wisconsin ; Iowa 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa; and other similar 
stations. 



Text-Books in Agriculture 

" Development of the Text-Book of Agriculture in North America." 

L. H. Bailey, United States Department of Agriculture (reprint 

from annual report, 1903). 
"Principles of Agriculture" ($1.25); "Garden Making" ($1.00); 

" Practical Garden Book " (#1.00). L. H. Bailey. The Macmillan 

Company, New York. 
"Agriculture for Beginners." Burkett, Stevens, and Hill. Ginn & 

Company. 75 cents. 
" New Elementary Agriculture " (for rural schools). C. E. Bessey et 

al. University Publishing Company, Lincoln, Nebraska. 60 cents. 
" First Principles of Agriculture." Edw. B. Voorhees. Silver, Bur- 

dett & Co. J5 cents. 
"Principles of Agriculture for Common Schools." I. O. Winslow. 

American Book Company. 60 cents. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 307 

In the Magazines 

(See also Carter's " Bibliography of School Gardens ") 

Arena: "Value of School Farms" (Gordon), XXIII, pages 544-553, 
May, 1900. 

Charities : " Children's Farm School in New York City" (F. G. Par- 
sons), XI, pages 220-223, September 5, 1903. 

Charities : "Junior School of Horticulture in St. Louis" (Stevens), 
XI, pages .223-224. 

Current Literature: "Agricultural Education on the Continent" 
(De Reimer), XXVII, pages 57-68, January, 1900. 

Education: "How the Common Schools can Help the Farmer" 
(Warren), XVII, pages 417-425, March, 1897; "Courses of 
Study in Agriculture" (Bogen), XXVII, pages 89-94, October, 
1 901; "The Enrichment of Rural School Life" (Jones), XXII, 
pages 37^-377- 

Educatio7ial Review : " School Garden in Thuringia " (Lukens), 
XVII, pages 237-241 ; " Newer Ideas " (Bailey), XX, pages 377— 
382 ; " Significant Factor in Agricultural Education " (Butter- 
field), XXI, pages 301-306 ; "Rural Schools in France" (Anna T. 
Smith), XXIV, pages 471-483. 

Fortnightly Review : " Present-Day Need in Agricultural Education " 
(Tremayne), LXXIX, pages 1068-1092, June, 1903. 

Forum: "University Extension in Agriculture" (True), XXVIII, 
pages 701-707, February, 1900; " Bussey Institution" (Hersey), 
V, pages 558-560. 

Independent : "Agriculture in the Public Schools," LV, pages 1641- 
1642, July 9, 1903. 

Journal of Education : "Agriculture in Schools" (Whittaker), XLV, 
page 320, May 20, 1897. 

Nation : " Rural Education in France," LXXI, page 231, September 
20, 1900. 

New England Magazine : " Government of Boys for Boys by Boys " 
(Thrasher), New Series, XXII, pages 193-208, April, 1900. 

Popular Science Monthly : "Agricultural Education on the Conti- 
nent," LVI, pages 218-233, December, 1899 ; "American Agricul- 
tural Education " (Butterfield), LXIII, pages 257-261, July, 1903. 



308 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Public Opinion : " Opening of a National School Farm (for Jews) at 
Doylestown, Pennsylvania," XXIII, page 44, July 8, 1897. 

Review of Reviews : " State as a Farmer" (Ellis), XIX, pages 706- 
709, June, 1899; "Our Farmer Youth and the Public Schools" 
(Ellis), XXVIII, pages 449-455, October, 1903 ; " Learning by 
Doing for the Farmer Boy" (Kern), XXVIII, pages 456-461. 

Scientific American: "Children's School Farm in the Heart of a 
Great City" (describes Mrs. Parsons's great work), LXXXIX, 
page 279, October 17, 1903. 

The World's Work : " Teaching Farmers' Children on the Ground" 
(lies), VI, pages 3415-3420, May, 1903 ; " Farmer Children Need 
Fanner Education" (Poe), VI, pages 3760-3762. 

Yale Review : "City Farm Training Schools," pages 95-97, May, 1898. 

Michigan, like Wisconsin, is moving along the line of 
improving the country schools by improving the teachers 
for country schools in special training classes in the county 
normal schools, and in 1903 eight such normal schools 
were in operation. In June, 1904, eighty-six young people 
graduated from the one-year course and went into the 
country schools to teach. The average age of the graduates 
was twenty years. The minimum age at which certificates 
to teach may be granted is eighteen years. By September, 
1904, twenty normal schools for country teachers were in 
operation, an increase of twelve over 1903. State Super- 
intendent Fall, in his report for 1904, advocates trained 
teachers and consolidation as two very efficient means of 
improving the country schools. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The following quotation from a recent article by Cal- 
vin Milton Woodward on "Manual Training: Theory and 
Method" (see the Outlook, December 16, 1905) will serve 
as a good introduction for this chapter. This quotation 
expresses the experience, no doubt, of thousands of boys 
raised on the farm, and the purpose of the chapter is to 
secure, if possible, a different system of training in the coun- 
try school and in the country home that will give a richer 
experience to the country boys and girls of the future. 

Says Mr. Woodward : 

We are frequently told that the boy from the farm has had manual 
training ; and it is true that he has had some manual training, but he 
has had a great deal of manual labor with it. I know, because I was 
a farm boy and learned everything that could be learned on a farm 
previous to my college course. I learned to use correctly the hoe, 
the shovel, the plow, the scythe, the cradle, and the ax ; but I never 
learned the proper use of bench tools, nor had we a machine tool of 
any kind till the mowing machine and the reaper came. I knew noth- 
ing of drawing, nothing of the mechanic arts, properly so called. Nine- 
teen twentieths of my time was spent simply in hard labor, which had 
no education beyond an incidental and imperfect knowledge of crops 
and soils and the market. Manual training would have been of great 
value and a few lessons would have saved me much time and money. 

Because the average farmer has not yet distinguished 
the difference between manual training and manual labor, 
the former will be slow in coming into the country school. 

3°9 



3io 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



But it will surely come ; indeed, it is already here in many 
places. Manual training is a phase of industrial training 
for the country school. It is a little unfortunate that we 
do not have a better term to express this thought ; for a 
great many excellent people to-day, moving along the edu- 
cational avenue that leads up to the public school, shy and 
stop still at the sight of the word "industrial" as applied 




Fig. 137. The Beginning of Manual Training in a Country 
School of Winnebago County, Illinois 

to the work of the public school. Any attempt to lead them 
closer for a more careful inspection of the word proves un- 
availing. To their thinking, industrial training means the 
elimination of " culture," whatever that may mean, and the 
substitution of the reform school or the trade school. For 
them the thought has not yet come that education should 
be for service as well as for sweetness and light ; that the 
children in our schools should be able to do things as well 
as to know about things ; and that in the right doing of 
things by the country child there is as great opportunity 
for culture as there is in studying the printed page to learn 
what men have said and thought in the past. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 3 1 1 

The distinction between higher education and industrial 
education has no real foundation upon which to rest. It is 
a survival of the aristocratic ideas of the Middle Ages. 
The thought that farming and blacksmithing are just as 
"high" as law and theology is not original with the writer. 
Whether it is better to be a blacksmith than a minister 




Fig. 138. Manual Training in a Winnebago County District School 

depends. As has been well said recently, " It is better to 
pound an anvil and make a good horseshoe than to pound 
a pulpit and make a poor sermon." 
This same writer adds : 

There is a real distinction between education for self-support and 
education for self-development, between culture and what the Ger- 
mans call the bread-and-butter sciences. In order, if not in impor- 
tance, the bread-and-butter sciences come first. The first duty every 
man owes to society is to support himself ; therefore the first office 
of education is to enable the pupil to support himself. 

As President Roosevelt said in an address to the young 
men of an eastern college, " Every young man ought to be 



312 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

able to carry his own weight," the thought being that a 
young man should be self-supporting and not be a dead 
weight on society or depend upon inherited wealth. 

I am indebted to Director W. C. Smith of the Winona 
Technical Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana, for the following 
interesting tabulation' of children in the public schools of 
the United States. The data are taken from the report for 
j 903 of William T. Harris, United States Commissioner 
of Education. It is worthy of careful notice. 

Public-School Education 

Grade Age Number of Pupils in Each Grade 

5,149,296 children enter first grade 



1 6 



2 7 ^nnB^HnB^HHlH^M ''>' seC " nu - >''- ai ' nearly one half dropout 

3 8 2^2(^263^^^^^^^^^ Still leaving school 

4 9 2,168,956 



5 1 ^,288^814^^^ Breadwinning by children begins 

6 11 705,885 The call of the " Dollar " 

7 12 405,69 3 

ft I 3 023 697 Compare this line with the first 

u J - — — ' About 17 per cent of pupils in school finish eighth grade 

9 14 243,433 enter high school 

10 15 147,192 

11 16 101,903 

\L 1/ 73,59° leave high school. A very small dot. 30 per cent finish high school 

So over 10,000,000 children leave school to go into trades without com- 
plete schooling. Among these millions is found the field of the trade school. 

627 universities, colleges, and technical schools in the United States have 
114,130 students. 

43 of these are technical schools, with 13,216 students. 

32,000,000 breadwinners, — 2,000,000 by brain work, and 30,000,000 by 
manual labor trades. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 313 

The reader will note the comparatively few who enter 
the high school. The number is relatively smaller for the 
country schools. This should emphasize the establishment 
of country high schools, so that more of the country chil- 
dren may have opportunity for manual training. 

Mr. William T. Bawden, Director of Manual Training 
in the normal school at Normal, Illinois, gives the follow- 
ing as compiled from the United States census for 1900. 
The total number of persons engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions is placed at 29,286,000, classified as follows : 

Agricultural pursuits, 10,438,000, or 35.7 per cent. 

Professional service, 1,264,000, or 4.3 per cent. 

Domestic and personal service, 5,691,000, or 19.4 per cent. 

Trade and transportation, 4,778,000, or 16.3 per cent. 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 7,113,000, or 24.3 percent. 

Commenting on these statistics, Mr. Bawden says : 

During the last fifty years there has been a marked decrease in 
the proportion of the number of individuals engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, and there has been a large increase in the percentage of 
those employed in trade and transportation and in manufacturing and 
mechanical pursuits. These figures show what a large part manual 
work, and especially the constructive industries, play in our national 
life. It is instructive to note what a large proportion of these methods 
of gaining a livelihood employ the hand more or less directly. We 
are preeminently an industrial nation, and if we are to maintain our 
supremacy among the nations of the world, we must be, even more 
than we have been, a manufacturing nation. This can only be accom- 
plished by raising up generations of children who can do something 
with their hands. This does not imply, as has been already indicated, 
the teaching of trades in the common schools ; but it does mean that 
children should be brought up to know something at first hand about 
" things," — the realities of life and the elements of such typical indus- 
tries as it may be possible to introduce into the work of the school 
(see bulletin, " Manual Training in the Schools," by W. T. Bawden, 
Illinois Normal University, April, 1904). 



3H 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



With the country high schools — that is, the village high 
schools — and the consolidated school as centers, manual 
training for the country child should begin. From these 
schools this particular phase of educational activity will 
soon spread into a large number of one-room country 
schools. The progre'ss will be slow for two reasons : first, 
the teachers are not yet trained for this work ; second, 
as was said above, the farmer, the patron of the country 
school, does not yet distinguish the difference between 




Fig. 139. Manual Training Products in Cottage Hill 
School, near Springfield, Illinois 

manual training and manual labor. Enough of the latter, 
certainly, the country child gets, and he is sent to school to 
study a book. We must not neglect book study, to be sure; 
but a careful observer of the average country school must 
be impressed with the great waste of time in much of this 
alleged -study of books. A reasonable amount of manual 
training could be given in the country school without doing 
violence to the study programme, and the study of books 
would be better for the manual activity. This is no theory; 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



315 



it has been and is being demonstrated beyond the shadow 
of a doubt ; and if we wait till every teacher is properly 
trained and every farmer is converted, nothing will be done. 
A demand must be created where none now exists. It is 
the duty of educational leaders — teachers and superintend- 
ents and school officers — to create this demand. Manual 
training did not come into the city schools because of a 
great spontaneous demand on the part of the city people. 
The history of the movement shows that it was regarded 




Fig. 140. The Workshop of Cottage Hill School. Workbenches 
used for Lunch Counters 

as a "fad " by the great mass of the people and also by no 
inconsiderable part of the elect, — the educational leaders, 
— who were supposed to know. But time changes some 
things ; and in view of educational progress in the past 
one should hesitate before he determines for time and 
eternity that manual training has no place in a sane, 
rational system of education for the country child. 

Here is a great opportunity for the school to cooperate 
with the country home, for through the inspiration and 
help of a live teacher a workbench can be installed in the 



316 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

home workshop, if it seems impracticable to install one in 
the country schoolhouse. The boy and girl at home, along 
the lines of farm activity and domestic economy, can make 
a collection of simple tools and receive instruction from 
the teacher as to processes of work. The country school 
and the country home must come more closely together. 
Many of the old-time activities on the farm and in the 
country home have gone since the introduction of im- 
proved machinery. With this change have gone some of 
the elements in the training of the country child, which the 
new country-school training must supply. 

Superintendent Brown of Edgar County, in an address 
before the Eastern Illinois Teachers' Association at Tus- 
cola, February, 1906, emphasizes this point as follows: 

Our schools must take up the neglected work of the home. Much 
credit was given the schools of the olden time for the power of char- 
acter formation in the youths of fifty years ago. We may be in error, 
but our candid opinion is that the great men and women of fifty years 
ago were produced by the home in spite of the school. The char- 
acter of our grandparents was the result of a home training such as 
no child in this day and generation is the fortunate possessor of. 

It has been well said that when a boy is learning the 
mechanics of home-keeping and a girl the chemistry of 
home-keeping, they are gaining as much self-culture as 
when they are learning what kinds of homes the ancient 
Greeks and Romans possessed. Our present self-develop- 
ment is too narrow. We need to broaden it. Manual train- 
ing is necessary to make the "all-round " man. 

It will be impossible to note every country school and 
every county, normal, and training school where some 
manuar training for the country school is carried on. The 
data are not yet at hand, and if they were, there would be 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 317 

material enough on this subject for a large book, to say 
nothing of a single chapter. So the writer cannot give 
credit for all the good work that is being done, and cer- 
tainly he makes no pretension of saying in one brief 
chapter the last word about manual training in the country 
school. It is hoped that what is given here, together with 
the account of what is being done, will quicken public 
interest in this particular phase of the education of the 
country child. 

As an illustration of what may be clone by a country 
teacher in a one-room school, the account of the Cottage 
Hill School, near Springfield, Illinois, as given by State 
Superintendent Bayliss at the Department of Superintend- 
ence at Cincinnati, Ohio, February, 1903, is worthy of 
careful study. Mr. Bayliss made a study of that school and 
has kindly loaned some of the photographs for this chapter. 
The illustrations show that the workbench is in the base- 
ment. When the new schoolhouse was built only enough 
of excavation was done to provide room for the furnace 
and for fuel. The teacher and boys dug out enough more 
to place a workbench, and upon Superintendent Bayliss's 
suggestion to the school officers the entire basement was 
made available for manual training purposes, as shown in 
the illustration. In the erection of country schoolhouses in 
the future the possibility of a good, dry, well-lighted base- 
ment should not be overlooked. 

The teacher stayed in this school for six years, with a 
steady increase of salary. He had no special training for 
this particular work, but had a willingness to learn and to 
do. In speaking with Superintendent Bayliss he said : 

When I came into this district six years ago the schoolhouse had 
nothing in it and was falling to pieces. After the new house was built 



3i8 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



the school grew, and I just could n't keep those little fellows studying 
books all day, and so had to do something to keep them busy. The 
older children just naturally "got busy" because they wanted to. 

We quote further from Superintendent Bayliss's paper, 
read at Cincinnati : 

Results count. This man's pedagogical method may be vulner- 
able, but, beyond a peradventure, he has achieved the prime result 
in any school district, — a genuine and public interest in the school. 

The bane of the detached 
school, in the small inde- 
pendent district, is the 
withering apathy, — the utter 
indifference to anything but 
petty grievances that, in the 
last analysis, can be usually 
traced to the intolerable dull- 
ness of the conventional 
school routine. Children are 
confined to a single mode of 
expression, and that upon 
matter derived from books, 
which, as far as they can see, 
has no sort of relation to any- 
thing whatever of interest to 
them ; and they naturally go 
to sleep. Why shouldn't 
they? Whatever wakes them 
up is justifiable. If the waking is followed by a new attitude of mind, 
extending beyond the school to the community, uniting directors, 
people, children, and teacher, the result is a distinct gain, apparent 
pedagogical crudeness to the contrary notwithstanding. Saul, the son 
of Kish, is not the only man who ever found a greater thing than 
he sought. 

The following will illustrate what can be clone in a 
county as a unit. County Superintendent Duggan of 
Hancock County, Georgia, has issued a bulletin entitled 




Fig. 141. Articles made in a Rural School 
in Dunn County, Wisconsin 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 319 

" Manual Training in Hancock County Schools." The first 
paragraph reads : 

Hancock County is the only county in Georgia, or elsewhere so far 
as we are informed, where any serious effort has been made towards 
the systematic introduction of manual training into the courses of 
study of an entire county system of rural schools. 

The work has been going on for two years, — not time 
enough, it is true, to establish it firmly or to demonstrate 




Fig. 142. The Manual Training Class at Work in a Rural 
School in Edgar County, Illinois 

its worth to other counties. But the interest and value 
are certainly great enough to justify the fondest hopes of 
those who believe in it. The conditions under which the 
work was inaugurated are similar to those of thousands of 
communities. Superintendent Duggan says : 

The large majority of the teachers had no ideas, or incorrect ideas, 
as to the methods or purposes of manual training in school work. 



320 AMONQ COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Citizens and patrons generally knew or thought but little about edu- 
cational methods, and regarded any innovation as unorthodox and 
therefore unwise ; while a few leaders of educational thought and 
progress, from whom wise counsel and cooperation was confidently 
expected, looked upon the movement with skepticism or jealousy, 
thereby well-nigh discouraging the most ardent promoters and inter- 
posing serious hindrance to a full, fair, and impartial trial. 

But there were some decided advantages. There are 
only twenty-six public rural schools in the county and one 
city high school at Sparta, the county seat. Thus the 
territory is more compact, with fewer schools than in the 
average county in Illinois and the Middle West. Then 
again there was a liberal donation from the General Educa- 
tion Board of New York towards the establishment of a 
system of manual training in connection with the county's 
public schools. Thus most of the funds were realized with- 
out the necessity of relying on local sources not friendly to 
the scheme ; and last, but not least by any means, the 
county superintendent was able to have an expert super- 
visor in charge of the work, — a person "who received her 
preparation at Teachers College, Columbia University, and 
who was also familiar with southern institutions, native 
materials, and Georgia rural-school conditions, and who was 
well educated, thoroughly trained, and had had successful 
experience in this particular line of educational work." 

Now no county superintendent should be cast down 
under such conditions. Given twenty-six country schools 
and one high school, a liberal amount of money, and a 
trained supervisor to a thousand county superintendents 
scattered over this country, and you will see things done 
in spite of unprogressive patrons and educational leaders, 
by courtesy so termed. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



321 



Most of the pupils beyond the seventh grade in the 
twenty-six country schools go to the high school at Sparta. 
On the high-school ground a manual training building of 
three rooms was erected, and this is open on Saturdays for 
the country school-teachers. The supervisor and the super- 
intendent outline the work from month to month, and a 
copy of the outline is sent to each teacher at least ten days 
before the first of the month. The teachers study this and 
receive help from the supervisor at the manual training 
shop on the first Saturday of each month. The instruction 
and direction for the country school-teachers is not limited 
to one Saturday, but the supervisor is ready every Sat- 
urday. At the first meeting practically every teacher in 
the county attends ; the attendance at the other meetings 
depends upon the weather, etc. A two weeks' manual 
training institute is carried on during the summer vacation. 

The following is given to illustrate the work : 

HANCOCK COUNTY SCHOOLS 

{Manual Training Depart?nent) 
Outlines for November 

(Furnished by Miss Emily P. Wilburn) 

First Three Grades 

1. Draw from large red apple. 5. Make drawing from spray of 

2. Tear from paper an apple. red leaves. 

Mount best picture of an 6. Draw simple landscape, 

apple of contrasting color. 7. Illustrate story of three bears. 

3. Make drawing of a large pear. 8. Draw to illustrate some per- 

4. Draw to illustrate something sonal experience. 

in connection with language 
or nature-study lessons. 



322 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



Constructive Work 



Make needlebooks. Decorate 
with sewing two pieces of 
cardboard. Make leaves of 
flannel and tie together with 
bright-colored ribbon. 



2. Decorate card with pump- 
kins or turkey and sew with 
bright-colored thread. Use 
as Thanksgiving card. 



Lessons for Grades above Third 



i. Select spray of autumn leaves 
and draw, placing in a panel 
of good proportion. 

2. Give lessons in landscape 

drawing. 

3. Continue lessons in landscape 

drawing. 

4. Make drawing of pumpkins 

placed in inclosure. Use 
table line to give the 



appearance of resting on 
something. 

5. Draw to illustrate some portion 

of reading lesson. 

6. Make drawing of pod of pep- 

per. Let each child have a 
pod if possible. 

7. Use the drawings of pepper 

for making a border design. 



Consti'uctive Work 



Waste basket. Make bottom 
of wood. Weave sides of 
willow, native rattan, or 
braided buffalo grass. 



Comb-and-brush tray. Make 
by sewing pine needles 
or native grass with coil 
stitches. 



Teachers are requested to study these outlines and bring them to 
the class on Saturday, November 5, 1904, where any point not fully 
understood will be explained. 

Teachers are also expected to confer freely with Miss Wilburn at 
any time in regard to any feature of the work or its introduction into 
their schools. 

In the preceding chapter is an account of the great work 
being done in Dunn County, Wisconsin, in training teachers 
to give instruction in manual training in the country schools 





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324 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

of that county. A reference to the account given will reveal 
the course of study. Principal K. C. Davis of the county 
School of Agriculture, writes : 

Senator J. H. Stout has helped materially in the introduction of 
the woodwork in the rural schools by providing fifteen sets of wood- 
working tools in neat cases, to be used as loan sets. These travel 
from school to school, staying in one place only long enough to create 
a demand for such work in that district. The district itself is then 
expected to buy a set of tools to be used in the future. The agricul- 
tural school has provided workbenches and brackets for the same, 
made by its students. These go with the loan sets mentioned. Very 
practical results have already been obtained, and in many cases much 
more has been done than could be expected. 

The teachers find the work useful in helping to keep the older 
pupils in school, in interesting pupils otherwise listless, and in making 
better equipment for their schools, to say nothing of the training 
actually gained from the work itself. 

We should not fail to consider the important influence which has 
surrounded the teachers of this county because of the presence of 
the Stout training schools, located at the county seat. The spirit of 
manual training pervades all. This paves the way for the introduc- 
tion of such work into all schools ; and since it has helped the city 
schools of Menomonie, it is reasonable to suppose that such work 
will help the country schools also, as it does. 

State normal schools are seriously studying the question 
of manual training for the country school. The oldest 
normal school in Illinois, the one at Normal, offers four 
courses in the training of teachers for the country schools : 
(i) bench work in wood; (2) construction work for pri- 
mary grades; (3) hand work for intermediate grades; 
(4) mechanical drawing. 

Special attention is given to elementary hand work during 
the first summer term of each year, when a great number 
of teachers from the country schools are in attendance. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 325 



This instruction is 
helpful, as Assistant 
County Superintendent 
Brigham of McLean 
County, the county in 
which the normal school 
is located, reports to 
Director Bawden that 
twenty per cent of the 
country schools of this 
county have some hand 
work going on, and that 
the number is increas- 
ing. This increase is 
to be expected in a 
county in which a great 
training school has 
been located for fifty 
years. But what about 
counties far removed 
from the direct influ- 
ence of such a school ? 
A very important 
investigation has been 
going on, which must 
result in an awakening 
on the subject of man- 
ual training in the 
country schools, espe- 
cially those of Illinois. 
During the past year 
a committee of the 




326 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Illinois Manual Arts Association has been making a study 
of the country-school problem. 

This committee made its report on manual training for 
rural schools to the Illinois Manual Arts Association at 
the third annual meeting at the University of Illinois, 
Saturday, February 1,7, 1906. 

It has not yet been decided what will be done with 
the report, but through the kindness of the chairman, 
Mr. Bawden, I am permitted to use portions of it here, 
the committee reserving the right to publish it entire or in 
part in the future. No definite conclusions have yet been 
determined in this report concerning manual training in 
the country schools beyond the belief that something can 
and should be done. 

So far the committee has used the following outline as a 
guide in making investigations : 

I. Given certain conditions, some hand work is possible. 

1. Country school with one room and one teacher. 

a. A teacher having some natural interest in and some aptitude 

for hand work, and willingness to make some effort. Or 

b. A teacher having had enough training in hand work to be 

able to get at least a few things started and the pupils 
interested. 

c. Officials not absolutely opposed to the idea of manual train- 

ing, but no funds available. 

2. Conditions similar to 1, but small sum available (five or ten 

dollars). 

3. Conditions similar to 2, except that the schoolhouse has an 

entry or vacant space in which a workbench or table might 
be placed. 

4. School with two rooms and two teachers, one of whom fills 

conditions of a or b in 1 ; permission to spend ten or fifteen 
dollars. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 327 

a. What conditions are desirable ? 

b. What conditions are essential if hand work is to be attempted ? 

c. What may be undertaken in any of the cases cited ? 

d. How may it be done ? 

e. How arouse interest ? 

f. How meet opposition ? 

g. How secure material or equipment? 

II. Discussion of source of initiative. 

1. The citizen. 

2. The teacher. 

3. The school directors or board. 

4. The county superintendent. 

5. Any teacher or supervisor of the manual arts within reach. 

6. The Illinois Manual Arts Association. 

7. Educational institutions. 

a. Who should make the first move? 

b. What may each do ? 

c. How secure cooperation of two or more ? 

d. How secure or disseminate information, advice, practical 

suggestions ? 

III. Description and discussion of results actually accomplished. 

IV. How can we make use of the important work already accom- 

plished along the lines of nature study and elementary 
agriculture ? 
Can we get from the leaders of this movement a list of definite 
and concrete problems that we may systematize and put in 
shape from the standpoint of the hand work involved? 

Thus far only two members of the committee have 
submitted the results of their investigations. 

Mr. Kendall, Supervisor of Manual Training, Lasalle 
Township High School, offers suggestions on " How to 
begin Manual Training in the Rural Schools." He says at 
the outset of his suggestions : 

This beginning has to do with the school that has no special 
equipment and no provision for any regular appropriation. At the 
outset it may be said that there is no beginning for the teacher who 



328 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



has no interest in the work ; such a teacher has no business to attempt 
the work. A teacher with the proper incentive and adequate informa- 
tion will succeed as well in manual training as in any book subject. 

Mr. Kendall approaches the subject from the educational 
point of view, which is the correct one in the end, and 
groups the work in three divisions. The first division com- 
prises Grades I, II, and III ; the second comprises Grades 



&L%i 




'ifflH! 






r 






Fig. 145. Manual Training in a Country School of 
Winnebago County, Illinois 

IV and V; while the third comprises Grades VI, VII, and 
VIII. With each division is given an outline of work suit- 
able for each grade. Some may claim that the proper 
beginning is with Grades VII and VIII by making some 
things that will appeal to the average farmer from a usable 
point of view and still be educational in the processes of 
work. Mr. Kendall says on this point : 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



329 



The need in all this work is a well-arranged, logical as well as 
natural, course through the first six years. The usual method of pro- 
cedure in the installation of manual training is to begin in the eighth 




Fig. 146. Manual Training in a Country School of 
Winnebago County, Illinois 

or ninth year, and then the work is slid up* and down until all the 
grades are provided with their several lines of work. The proper 
place in which to begin manual training is in the kindergarten or first 
grade, and then develop the work year by year through the upper 



330 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

grades. The teacher will be able to make the course fit the special 
needs of the school when the scope of the work is understood from 
a study of the literature and materials that may be obtained from the 
resources at command. 

The above is sound in theory, but manual training has 
had to start in almost any way in many city schools. The 
problem is more complicated for the country school, and it 
may be that the utilitarian aspect will have to be emphasized 
with the farmers at the outset rather than the educational 
aspect. The educators should, of course, keep both in view. 

The report has an account of the literature available on 
the subject, and gives the experience of two country school- 
teachers in installing manual training in their schools. The 
chairman closes by asking the following general questions : 

i. First, what can the supervisor of drawing or manual training 
in the town or city do to help the rural school-teacher? How many 
supervisors here present have Saturday morning meetings for teachers ? 
Is it practicable for such supervisors to extend an invitation to such 
rural school-teachers as are within reach, and who can be interested, 
to come in and attempt to prepare themselves for this work ? 

2. My second question is, Are the conditions ripe for the publica- 
tion of a small manual prepared especially for the rural school-teacher 
and dealing with the subjects of drawing, hand work, and nature study? 
A beginning could be made with a small pamphlet of say thirty or forty 
pages, profusely illustrated ; it should specifically suggest a few things 
that may be done in any rural school by any intelligent teacher. The 
processes should be simple, the materials cheap and easily obtained, 
the equipment reduced to a minimum, and all details worked out and 
fully explained. Suitable references to the literature of the manual 
arts would furnish the teacher with a clew as to what to do next. 

A progressive county superintendent in Minnesota, 
Miss Fanny Gies of Mower County, states how manual 
training is carried on in a county where there is no special 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 331 

supervisor. Her account is a type of what, doubtless, is 
being done in many counties. Miss Gies says : 

I believe the manual training courses as laid out for our city- 
schools under the direction of a trained specialist are not suitable or 
practical for our country schools. We have neither the time nor the 
trained instructor, but we can do something to bring into our schools 
and develop the manual training spirit. We can do something to 
meet that innate desire of every child to make something that is of use, 
that desire which, when materialized, supplements and strengthens our 
work in other directions. Since manual training courses are planned 
to train the eye and the hand to work together under the direction of 
the mind, I believe we must put into our country schools something 
which will tend to accomplish this result. 

In this county I have introduced drawing into the one-room schools 
partly for this reason. We need not fear that we shall destroy the 
beauty idea by making it a training ; for the closer the union of mind, 
eye, and hand, the better the artistic result as well as the training. 
Drawing to measurement with rulers and the making of designs should 
be often introduced into the work of the older pupils. The practical 
and decorative is often combined in making articles for definite uses, 
such as notebook covers, portfolios for drawing and writing material, 
programmes and invitations, and objects for holiday purposes. 

In the primary grades we find the little folks become very skillful 
in the use of the scissors in making free-hand cuttings to illustrate 
some mental picture derived from a story. Paper folding and weav- 
ing of paper, cloth, or yarn are forms of industrial work adapted to 
the lower grades in our country schools. 

Some of our schools have done excellent work in cardboard con- 
struction. This demands great accuracy in measurement, drawing, 
and cutting. The pupils have taken great pleasure in making brackets, 
boxes, cardcases, match holders, furniture for dolls, etc. Because of 
its excellent training I hope to make this work general in the schools 
of this county. Some teachers have attempted raffia work in their 
schools, but say they find it more difficult to use in the one-room schools. 
This last form of work has not been urged upon the teachers. 

The kinds of industrial work that have been emphasized in 
Mower County are drawing, paper cutting, folding, and weaving, and 



33 2 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



cardboard construction. For the teachers who have not had previous 
preparation for this work we have provided special instruction at the 
summer training schools, and also at the county teachers' meetings 
held during the school year. 

Something may be done at the annual teachers' institute 
of only a week's duration to help country school-teachers 
to a better understanding of the importance of manual 
training. A few of the teachers will receive enough help 
and inspiration to really accomplish something in their reg- 
ular school work. For two years manual training has had 
a place on the programme of the institute of Winnebago 
County. The work has been in charge of Mr. Harvey G. 
Hatch, Supervisor of Manual Training in the city schools 
of Rockford. This work may be taken as a type of what 
may be done in a week in the way of aiding teachers and 
helping to answer the question how a city supervisor of 
manual training may help the country school-teacher. This 
question was raised before by Mr. Bawden. The following 
is Mr. Hatch's thought on the subject : 

At first sight it seems that manual training forms so natural a part 
of the farm boy's life that he does not need school influence to stim- 
ulate him to activity. We have heard over and over again from city 
men whose careers had their rise in farm life that they did not lack 
for manual training in those early years ; in fact, it was manual train- 
ing from early morning till late at night. But we do not hear from 
the old-time farmer boy that manual training ever meant anything 
more than long-drawn-out drudgery and unending toil. The city man 
sees his early life as a means, while the farmer sees his early life in 
the light of an end. It is for the farmer of to-day to see that in man- 
ual training he has a means that will help his children directly, and 
himself indirectly, to better understand and enjoy farm life. 

No matter how involved the present situation may be, it takes no 
great prophet to see what the end will be. The country boy is capa- 
ble of and has great necessity for the fine adjustments of muscular 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



333 



control which the planing of a board means. Without doubt the 
country boy needs to have more of a chance to use his hands under 
school auspices, and when the time comes that the country boy may 
be seen on his way home from school with a book under one arm 
and under the other an evener, a towel rack, or some useful thing 
which he himself has made in school, it will be safe to say that that 
boy will look upon his school as a more useful place, and there will 
be some natural connection between living on a farm and going to a 
country school. 1 doubt not that the country boy likes to feel him- 
self a part of the life which is all about him, but he gets only a slight 




Fig. 147. Winnebago County Teachers doing Tool Work at the 
March (1906) Annual Teachers' Institute 



view of it through the present country school. Action is a part of 
life, but ordinarily action is ruled out in school business. 

Many machines are used on a farm, and machines break. Repairs 
are necessary, and often the loss of a day's use of a machine means a 
great deal. Suppose the country schoolboy could make an intelligent 
working drawing of the necessary part and take it to town himself, 
explaining to the mechanic just what repairs would be needed. Here 
again the boy would feel himself a prime factor and not a drudge 
factor in the development of the farm. 

From my point of view, then, it is necessary to emphasize the 
need of what the educator calls the purely utilitarian. I urge this as 



334 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

the next step, for it is the logical thing to do. Without doubt the 
passing of time will reveal a broader application. 

No doubt the county institutes may be made a great help in 
giving teachers some rudimentary ideas in the details of tool work. 
While this is an opportunity by no means to be neglected, it cannot 
be considered to meet the situation adequately ; but if the city man- 
ual training schools could give the matter some consideration, they 
would be of great assistance. I doubt if it would be difficult to form 
Saturday classes in cities for country teachers, if enthusiasm and 
backing were forthcoming from county officials. 

The manual training high school of the city must aid in the solu- 
tion of the manual training problem of the country school. Township 
high schools and the regular city high schools are attracting many 
country boys, and almost without exception they find large satisfaction 
in the manual training courses. From these young people must come 
the supply of teachers for the country schools ; they are the ones 
who can give the greatest help, since they are in sympathetic touch 
with the life of the country and can best see and realize country 
needs. 

Ofttimes teachers in the country school rind the need of a 
suggestive outline of work for the different grades, together 
with some good practical reference books, which the teacher 
may own or put into the local school library as the result 
of a school social. The following, taken from the Manual 
Training Magazine, is to the point, and is particularly 
valuable to the country school, as shop equipment is not 
necessary : 

Possible Kinds of Hand Work 

From the following outline one or two or possibly, in some cases, 
three kinds of work may be selected for each grade. 

Grades I and II. Equipment: pencil, ruler, scissors, needle: 
a. Paper folding: geometric, square of paper given (see " Construc- 
tion Work in the Primary Grades," by Julia C. Cremins in 
Yearbook of Council of Supervisors of the Manual Arts, 1 904). 



- fi H 




135 



336 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

b. Paper cutting: freehand (see " Freehand Cutting," by Olive 

Wills in School Arts Book, Vol. IV, pages 265-271). 
Cutting natural forms and illustrating stories. 

c. Paper weaving: strips of paper given (see Educational Hand- 

work Manuals, Part I, by Arthur H. Chamberlain; also 
Suggestions in Handwork, by Wilhelmina Seegmiller). 

d. Paper construction work (see Paper Sloyd or Primary Grades, 

-by Ednah A. Rich). 

e. Work with raffia or shoe strings: braiding, winding, knotting 

(see Educational Handwork Manuals, Part I, by Arthur H. 
Chamberlain). 
f Weaving: rugs and other simple objects of yarn or strips of 
cloth or raffia. 
Grade III. Equipment: pencil, ruler, scissors, needle, two or three 
ticket punches for the class. 
a. Cardboard work : very heavy manila paper, one square corner 
given (see Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades, by Ednah A 
Rich; or First Years in Handicraft, by Walter J. Kenyon). 




Fig. 149. Learning to Cook : Manual Training for Girls 

b. Card work : macrame cord, shoe strings, or wrapping cord (see 

Chapter XXIII in Practical and Artistic Basketry, by Laura 
R. Tinsley). 

c. Basketry (see Practical and Artistic Basketry, by Laura R. 

Tinsley). 
Grade IV. Equipment: the same as provided for Grade III, with 
compasses added. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



337 



a. Cardboard construction: heavy manila paper or bristol board; 

find square corners (see Cardboard Construction, by J. H. 
Trybom; or Paper and Cardboard Work, by Arthur H. 
Chamberlain). 

b. Basketry (see reference in Grade III). 




Fig. 150. Macdonald Consolidated School, Guelph, Ontario, 
Canada. Manual Training Room 



c. Clay working (see " Clay Working in the School," by Cheshire L. 
Boone in Yearbook of Council of Supervisors of the Manual 
Arts, 1905; also " Pottery in the Public Schools," by Forrest 
E. Mann in Manual Training Magazine, January, 1906). 
Grade V. 

a. Knife work. Equipment : knife, try-square, compasses, ruler, 

and pencil for each pupil, and small hammer, two hand screws, 
oilstone, oil can, and brad awl. Material: basswood, iby T 3 g 
inches thick; pad of drawing paper 6 by 9 inches; liquid 
glue, small brads, sandpaper, stains and wax for finishing 
(see Elementary Knife Work, by W. C. A. Hammel; and Art 
Crafts for Beginners, by Frank G. Sanford). 

b. Bent-iron work. Equipment : flat-nose pliers, round-nose pliers, 

rule, and pencil for each pupil; snips for every four pupils, 
small hand vise, small hammer, Morrill punch, and paint brush 
for general use. Material: |-inch ribbon iron, ^-inch binders. 



338 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

rivets, black paint (see " Bent Iron," by Henry T. Bailey in 
School Arts Book for February, 1905). 

c. Basketry (see reference in Grade III). 

d. Clay working (see reference in Grade IV). 
Grade VI. 

a. Knife work. Continuation of work in Grade V. 

b. Bent-iron work (see references in Grade V). 

c. Basketry (see references in Grade III). 

d. Sewing. 

e. Clay working (see references in Grade IV). 
Grade VII. 

a. Knife work. The same as Grade V, adding the use of thicker 

wood (pine) in the middle of the year. To the equipment 
should be added one backsaw (10 inches), one bench hook, 
one bit brace, three drill bits, in sizes to suit work to be done 
(see Advanced Knife Work, by W. C. A. Hammel). 

b. Tooled leather work. Equipment: modeling tools, small board 

of hard wood, knife, ruler, sponge (see Manual Training 
Magazine, July, 1904, and October, 1905; also Art Crafts 
for Beginners, by Frank G. Sanford, and " Simple Metal- 
Working in the Public Schools," by Forrest E. Mann in 
Manual Training Magazine, Vol. IV). 

c. Sewing and garment making. 

Note. The girls may take sewing while the boys take knife work. 
Then for a part of the time both boys and girls may unite in either 
tooled work or in sheet-metal work. 

Grade VIII. 

a. Mechanical drawing. Equipment: "Springfield Kit," compasses, 

ruler, pencil, eraser (see Mechanical Drawing, by Anson K. 
Cross). 

b. Paper-box making and the elements of book binding; use of 

strawboard and lining paper. Equipment : straightedge, 
knife, scissors, ruler, pencil, folder. Material : strawboard, 
lining paper, cover papers, linen, paste, glue (see "Some 
Phases of Constructive Work in the Grammar Grades," by 
Julia C. Cremins in Yearbook of Council of Supervisors of 
the Manual Arts, 1905). 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 339 

c. Tooled leather work (see reference in Grade VII). 

d. Sheet-metal work (see reference in Grade VII). 

e. Sewing and garment making. 

f. Cooking. 

Following is a carefully prepared list of the most useful 
works on the various phases of manual training : 

Reference List 
Theory 

Baldwin, W. A., Industrial School Education. 

Dewey, John, The School and Society. 

Dopp, Katherine E., The Placeof Industries in Elementary Education. 

Goetze, W., Hand and Eye Training. (From the German standpoint.) 

Ham, C. H., ( Mind and Hand. 

National Educational Association, Report of the Committee on Indus- 
trial Education in Schools for Rural Communities, 1905. 

Salomon, Otto, The Theory of Educational Sloyd. (From the Swedish 
standpoint.) 

Washington, B. T., Working with the Hands. 

Woodward, C. M., The Manual Training School. 

Woodward, C. M., Manual Training in Education. 

Practice 
Schoolrooin Handicrafts 

Chamberlain, Arthur H., Basketry, Clay, and Paper Weaving for the 

Elementary Grades. 
Chamberlain, Arthur H., Paper and Cardboard Construction. 
Hammel, W. C. A., Elementary Knife Work. 
Hammel, W. C. A., Advanced Knife Work. 
Hapgood, Olive C, School Needlework. Teacher's Edition. 
Kenyon, W. J., First Years in Handicraft. 
Rich, Ednah A., Paper Sloyd for Primary Grades. 
Sage, Elizabeth, and Cooley, Anna M., Occupations for Little Fingers. 

Work in textiles. 



340 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Sanford, F. G., Art Crafts for Beginners. Sheet-metal work, tooled 

leather, pottery, bookbinding, pyrography. 
Seegmiller, Wilhelmina, Suggestions in Handwork. Paper weaving, 

work with tilo matting. 
Todd, M. P., Hand-Loom Weaving. 
Trybom, J. H., Cardboard Construction. 
Trybom, J. H, Correlated Handwork, Book I. 
Walkeman, A. V., and Heller, L. M., Scientific Sewing and Garment 

Cutting. 
Williams, Mary E., and Fisher, Katharine R., Elements of the Theory 

and Practice of Cookery. 
Worst, E. F., Construction Work. 

Woodworking 

Foster, E. W., Elementary Woodworking. A text-book for schools. 

It is intended to supplement class instruction concerning tools, 

fundamental tool processes, wood, and trees. 
Goss, W. F. M., Bench Work in Wood. Contains an excellent chap- 
ter on tools and their use. 
Hoffman, B. B., The Sloyd System of Woodworking. 
Murray, M. W., Problems of Woodworking. Forty selected working 

drawings ready for class use. 
Pinchot, Gifford, A Primer of Forestry. Part I, The Forest ; Part II, 

Practical Forestry. Bulletin No. 24, United States Department 

of Agriculture. 
Wheeler, C. G., Woodworking for Beginners. Tells the amateur how 

to make furniture, implements for sport, small boats, house boats, 

summer cottages, and the like. 

Drawing and Design 

Batchelder, E. A., Principles of Design. 
Cross, A. K., Freehand Drawing. 
Cross, A. K., Light and Shade. 
Cross, A. K., Mechanical Drawing. 



MANUAL TRAINING IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 341 

Eqidpments, Cost, etc. 
Rouillion, Louis, The Economy of Manual Training. 

Gardening 
Hemenway, H. D., Hints and Helps for Young Gardeners. 

Periodicals 
Amateur Work. 
Craftsman. 

Manual Training Magazine. 
School Arts Book. 
Yearbooks of Council of Supervisors of the Manual Arts. 



CHAPTER XV 
A LAST WORD 

In this concluding chapter I do not expect to say the 
final word with reference to increasing the usefulness of 
the country school. This will be a last word so far as this 
work is concerned. There needs to be an awakening among 
country people and educators generally with respect to the 
possibilities of the country school. How this awakening is 
to be brought about is another matter. 

It is a hopeful sign for the country schools of any state 
when the state university begins to "sit up and take notice " 
of the district schools. This is what is happening in the 
great state of Illinois. So far as I know, for the first time 
in the history of the state the University of Illinois held 
a special summer session in the interest of country schools, 
June 12-30, 1905; also a special state conference in the 
interests of the country schools of Illinois was held by the 
University, June 26-30, 1905. 

During the summer session of three weeks such sub- 
jects as agriculture, household science, manual training, 
teaching, economic zoology, commercial geography, school 
architecture, and school consolidation — all for country 
schools — were considered by men of mark in the educa- 
tional world. 

The reader's attention is called to the following resolu- 
tions, adopted at the close of this conference : 

342 



A LAST WORD 343 

Resolutions 

University of Illinois, Urbana, 
June 30, 1905 



Whereas : We sincerely appreciate the importance of the move- 
ment whereby the great University of Illinois, the apex of the edu- 
cational pyramid of our state, extends a helping hand to the ten 
thousand six hundred and seventy-seven country schools of Illinois 
at the base of our educational pyramid, where were enrolled three 
hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and eighteen boys and 
girls of the Prairie State ; and 

Whereas: Fully ninety per cent of these boys and girls will get 
their only training for life's duties, so far as books are concerned, in 
these ten thousand six hundred and seventy-seven one-room country 
schools und,er more or less favorable conditions ; therefore 

Be it resolved: That we, as school officers ; teachers, and patrons 
assembled in this first conference in the interests of the country 
schools, recommend that a united effort be made all over Illinois, by 
individual school districts or larger communities, to increase the use- 
fulness of the country school along one or more of the following 
general lines. 

First. Increase the usefulness of the country school as a spirit- 
ualizing force in country life by planting trees, flowers, shrubbery on 
the school grounds so that the one thousand seven hundred and sixty- 
six country-school grounds now without a single tree, and the three 
thousand three hundred and thirty-two country-school grounds with 
insufficient trees, may exert as wholesome an influence as do the three 
thousand nine hundred and fifty-four well-kept, beautiful country- 
school grounds now scattered over our state. It is also true that 
beautiful buildings, equipped with necessary apparatus, a library, 
choice works of art on the walls, etc., do exert quite as much influ- 
ence for right thinking and doing as does a study of what men have 
said or done in past ages. 

Second. Increase the usefulness of the country school by an enrich- 
ment of the course of study for the country child, so that the country 
child may be put into sympathetic and 1 intelligent relation to his 



344 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



environment. That there shall come into the country school some- 
thing in an elementary form, with reference to agriculture, manual 
training, and domestic arts. That in the things surrounding the child 
on the farm is a body of material that possesses a high cultural value 
as well as practical utility. 

Third. Increase the usefulness of the country school by consoli- 
dating weak country schools and transporting children when condi- 
tions are favorable. This will give a country graded school and make 

possible the distinctly 
country high school with 
a course of study fla- 
vored with country life 
and interests. We fully 
recognize that consolida- 
tion is not feasible in 
many localities ;ww, nor 
perhaps desirable; but 
it is practicable in many 
localities, and we are 
heartily in favor of an 
educational campaign 
whereby the people may be thoroughly informed on this question. 
Then it is theirs to do or not to do. 

Resolved: Our thanks are hereby extended to the authorities and 
faculty of the University of Illinois for their efforts to make this first 
conference the success it has been. 




Fig. 151. A Schoolhouse built in the 
Early Fifties 



It was my pleasure to attend a recent convention of school 
directors in Rock County, Wisconsin. These conventions 
can be made a great force in an educational campaign for an 
educational uplift for the country child. The Wisconsin law 
with reference to school directors' meetings reads as follows : 

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows : 
Section i. A paragraph is hereby added to Section 461 of the 
statutes of 1898, to be numbered and to read as follows: 9. The 



A LAST WORD 345 

county or district superintendent of schools shall annually call and 
hold at least one school board convention for his superintendent dis- 
trict, at the county seat or some other convenient place, for the pur- 
pose of consultation, advice, and instruction upon matters pertaining 
to the management of our schools. Each district clerk shall, and the 
director and treasurer may, attend such convention. Each member 
present shall be allowed two dollars and mileage at the rate of three 
cents per mile each way, going and returning to and from said meet- 
ing, and said sum to be paid from any moneys in the school district 
treasury not otherwise appropriated. The county superintendent shall 
issue to each member in attendance a certificate which shall be filed 
with the school district clerk and serve as a basis or evidence for 
drawing the necessary warrant upon the district treasury. 

The last legislature of Wisconsin made provision for a 
State Inspector of Country Schools. The new inspector, 
Mr. L. Wi Wood, has a great field before him. From my 
conversation with him at the Rock County school board 
convention I judge him to be a man in full sympathy with 
the country school. It is safe to say that the school direc- 
tors, county superintendents, and country school-teachers 
will find in the new inspector a safe and sympathetic co- 
laborer. The Journal of Education (Boston), in a recent 
editorial, has the following with reference to this forward 
step for the country schools of Wisconsin. Speaking of 
Inspector Wood's duties, the editor says : 

In July and August he is to familiarize himself by careful reading 
with all the recent literature on rural schools and their improvement. 
He is expected to be master of the best things so far written on all 
phases of the subject. In September and October he will visit, in and 
out of the state, those places in which the new work is done in and for 
the country schools. From November to March there will be seventy 
county conventions of the boards of education in rural districts. At 
least one man from each district is required to attend, and his expenses 
are paid, and he further draws a per diem honorarium for attendance. 



346 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

The county superintendent arranges the meeting, though Inspector 
Wood will largely dominate the programme. In this way he will 
enlighten and inspire some school official in every local rural district 
in the state. 

From March to June he will be visiting schools, selecting typical 
regions, visiting rural schools faithfully and actively for five days 
each week, and on Saturday will hold a teachers' meeting at which 
every teacher visited shall be present. From time to time bulletins 
will be issued for the advantage of the teachers, superintendents, and 
the public. 

The state department has set about improving school buildings and 
grounds, notably in heating and ventilating; securing better teachers, 
and better salaries for the better teachers ; reducing the number of 
small schools through consolidating schools and transporting the 
pupils. Mr. Wood was born in an agricultural community, went to a 
country school, has taught in ungraded schools, and has the purpose 
and the vigor to do a great work for the rural schools of Wisconsin. 

Why not something of this kind for every state ? Why 
should the country school be the last part of our educa- 
tional system to receive attention ? State Superintendent 
Miller of West Virginia is conducting an educational cam- 
paign in his state. The West Virginia School Journal for 
June, 1905, contains the following editorial : 

State Superintendent Miller believes that the educational progress 
of the state is not keeping up with its industrial progress, and that in 
our wild scramble for wealth we are losing sight of the more impor- 
tant things of life. In order to get the people to think upon these 
things he organized an educational campaign in three sections which 
he called " The Ohio River Tour," " The North Central Tour," and 
"The Tour on the Main Line of the Baltimore and Ohio," respec- 
tively. County Superintendent O. J. Kern of Winnebago County, 
Illinois, was the chief speaker on the first of these tours; Dr. A. E. 
Winship, editor of the Joiimal of Education (Boston), on the second ; 
and State Superintendent W. W. Stetson of Maine on the third. 
Superintendent Miller had personal charge of the meetings for the 



A LAST WORD 347 

first two weeks, after which he was obliged, by the serious illness of 
Mrs. Miller, to remain at home. Professor Thomas E. Hodges of the 
University was a member of the party for the first week and a part 
of the third, and Dr. Waitman Barbe of the University was with the 
various tours the whole three weeks. The campaign began April 24 
and closed May 13. At least fifteen thousand people heard the ad- 
dresses. The meetings were attended by the most influential people, 
and in most cases the interest and enthusiasm were quite marked. In 
some instances receptions and banquets were held, and orchestras, as 
well as the best vocal music, were brought into use, and the occasions 
were emphasized in a most encouraging way. 

State Superintendent W. W. Stetson of Maine organ- 
ized, in 1898, the School Improvement League of Maine, 
for the improvement of the country schools of that state. 
The objects of the league are to improve school grounds 
and buildings, to provide suitable reading matter for pupils 
and parents, and to provide works of art for the school- 
room. How successful the league has been may be judged 
from a report of the state president and state secretary 
issued from the office of Superintendent Stetson. The 
material results are summed up as follows : 

1. Planted over five thousand trees. 

2. Purchased a hundred thousand books. 

3. Purchased over five hundred casts. 

4. Purchased about seven thousand pictures. 

Other important results are given as follows : 

1. The league has created a higher standard of equipment for 
schools. 

2. Harmony has been strengthened between the school and home. 

3. Self-help has been emphasized. 

4. The usefulness of the country school has been increased. 

5. School life has been made more attractive to the children, civic 
pride has been cultivated, and the taste for good literature has been 
encouraged. 



348 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

Superintendent Stetson reports that the country schools 
of Maine constitute sixty-one per cent of the whole number 
in the state, with forty-four per cent of the children attend- 
ing them. Since these same country schools are, in some 
respects, the most important in the state, Superintendent 
Stetson has instituted what he is pleased to call " standard 
schools." He does not quite believe in either "ideal" or 
" model" schools. To quote from his booklet on standard 
schools : 

The "ideal school " is not attainable. It is doubtful if it is desir- 
able. If we had it, we would not be able to use it in such a way as 
to derive benefit from it. We have to grow up to the higher planes 
before we can be helped by ideal conditions. 

The " model school " has filled such large spaces in so many 
reports that it is in bad odor. The " model school," like the " ideal 
school," is both illusive and delusive. Each is one thing to-day and 
something quite different to-morrow. Before either can be built it 
will have outgrown the conception upon which it was constructed. 

The "standard school" is achievable. It has metes and bounds 
and may have a local habitation. 

It may be said in passing that no "ideal" is absolutely 
attainable, for the moment it is attained it is no longer an 
" ideal " ; and it may be fairly questioned whether a " model 
school" need necessarily be "both illusive and delusive." 

However, among the excellent " ideals" which Mr. Stet- 
son sets forth for his "standard school," which may serve 
as a "model" for the improvement of the country schools 
of Maine, are the following : 

i. The grounds shall comprise at least three acres with plots for 
forest trees, fruit trees, school garden, and playground, and with neat, 
tasteful walks, etc. This is an excellent " ideal," and in several states 
is being attained, thus serving as a "standard" for other country 
communities. 



A LAST WORD 349 

2. The building should be constructed of wood and of such a 
size as to afford plenty of cloak room, etc. The architecture should 
be simple and attractive, the floors and wainscoting to be of yellow 
birch with walls and ceiling of steel, the former painted a light buff 
and the latter a light cream. 

3. The windows should be at the left and rear of the pupils 
when seated. 

4. The furniture should consist of a slate blackboard, single adjust- 
able desks, recitation settees, chairs for teacher and possible visitors. 

5. A library case and suitable books. 

6. Pictures and statuary of real artistic merit. 

7. Necessary maps, globe, etc. 

8. Stove with jacket, and ventilating shaft in chimney. 

9. Water supply ample and pure. 

10. Outbuildings in the rear of lot surrounded by evergreen trees. 

11. A good fence around school ground. 

12. A workshop for the boys and one also for the girls. 

And to educate the people up to his ideal of a standard 
school Superintendent Stetson has issued a pamphlet en- 
titled " Sketches, Designs, and Plans for School Buildings, 
School Grounds, and Outhouses " ; also one on " Improve- 
ment of School Buildings and Grounds." 

Mr. Stetson claims that the " standard school " will 
help the people of his state to see that : 

The homes of Maine should be domestic universities. 

The common school should be the social, literary, and art center 
of the community. 

The safety of the nation is not in the hands of its rulers, but in the 
lives of its common people. 

West Virginia, under the excellent leadership of State 
Superintendent Miller and Dr. Waitman Barbe of the 
University of West Virginia, has an active league for the 
same purposes. The membership fee of the West Virginia 
league consists of a pledge to devote at least one day 



35o 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



during the year towards improving the school grounds and 
buildings, and to maintain libraries in the schools. Much 
good work is being done. 

From the Pine Tree State to the Palmetto State is shown 
a quickening of the public interest with reference to the 
country school. The- pamphlets issued by State Superin- 
tendent O. B. Martin of South Carolina, in 1905, reveal the 
new educational spirit in the South land. Special attention 




Fig. 152. Bare and Uninviting 

is here called to Mr. Martin's pamphlet, " School Improve- 
ment, Law, Designs, and Suggestions for Schoolhouses," 
which cannot help creating a new "ideal " as to the char- 
acter of the school plant. Design No. 16 in the above 
pamphlet is "an ideal eight-room school building built in 
Illinois." 

Superintendent Martin well says : 

People will not patronize merchants who have uncomfortable, 
dingy, ill-furnished storehouses, nor do they accept accommodations 
in box cars when they ride on railroads ; and yet, when it comes to 
the training of children, they often risk the health, lives, and character 



A LAST WORD 35 T 

of their children in buildings which have but little more comfort or 
architectural beauty than a cheap barn or a box car. If we judge 
a man's business by his place of business, it is no wonder that our 
people are becoming dissatisfied with the average school building, its 
equipment and its environment. It is impossible to keep the best 
teacher in an uncomfortable, ill-fitted schoolhouse. 

All of which is true of many other states as well as of 
South Carolina. 

A most valuable pamphlet entitled " Better Schools in 
South Carolina " contains the papers read at a conference 
of South Carolina educators held at Charleston, April 11, 
1903. The papers discuss the following subjects : 

1. The Value of Education. 

2. Local Taxation. 

3. School Consolidation. 

4. The Improved Teacher and the Improved Trustee. 

5. School Supervision. 

6. The School Building and its Equipment. 

7. Beautifying School Grounds. 

8. The School Library. 

9. Country High Schools. 

10. The Industrial Side of the Public School. 

One quotation from the last will bear reading : 

Teach the great mass of the people how to produce something, as 
well as how to speak and write something, and we have filled an 
aching void which has long existed in our educational system. We 
shall +hen look forward with new hope and inspiration to better things 
generally, remembering that no civic, religious, or educational system 
can long exist and succeed without support, backed by the ability of 
its people to produce. 

South Carolina is moving in the matter of consolidation 
of country schools. State Superintendent Martin says : 
"The strongest argument that I have heard in favor of 
consolidation is that wherever it is tried the people like it 



352 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



and usually become its best friends and supporters when it 
is put into operation." 

Following the above conference a campaign for edu- 
cation was carried on in many counties in the state, and 
great results are following. The report of the state super- 
intendent gives the following interesting fact : 

Not long since, in a mountain community known as the " Dark 
Corner," I was very much gratified to know that the school had 
secured a library, and I was even more pleased to hear one of its 
patrons say that he preferred to send his children five miles to a 
well-equipped school rather than send them to a poorly taught and 
unfurnished school near his own door. 

December 15, 1905, was Library Day for South Carolina, 
and the expectation was to put twenty-five thousand new 
books into the school libraries. 

Georgia is making strides in the improvement of the 
country school and is undergoing a general educational 
awakening, as shown by the 1904 report of State School 
Commissioner William B. Merritt. In that report is a joint 
address to the southern people by the state superintendents 
of all the southern states. The following extract shows the 
importance of the country school in the South : 

The rural schools. Between eight ninths and nine tenths of the 
population of the South is rural and agricultural. The great mass 
of the people of the South, therefore, are dependent upon the rural 
schools for education. The rural schools, then, are the strategic point 
in the educational system of the southern states. Farming is still 
the greatest institution in the South. The preservation and improve- 
ment of its greatest industry and its greatest institution depend upon 
the improvement of these rural schools. Because of the sparse popu- 
lation, the large territory, the bad roads, the geographical barriers, 
the small amount of taxation, and the small school fund, these rural 
schools are the most poorly equipped and the most inefficient public 
schools in the South. Unless they can be made equal in merit to the 



A LAST WORD 



353 



best public schools of the towns and cities, and adapted to educating 
farmers' children for farm life rather than away from farm life, many 
of the best people in the country will continue to leave the farms; 
and the disastrous drain upon the best blood of the country will be 
kept up until there may be left there only the poorest peasant popula- 
tion, too ignorant to know the value and blessing of education, and 
too indifferent to care to secure it for their offspring. 

The women's clubs of Georgia are doing most excellent 
practical work to secure better conditions for the schools. 
A representative of the Women's Club of Macon writes 




Fig. 153. Pleasant to Look Upon 

most interestingly of the work done there, — how the 
cooperation of the superintendent and the board of educa- 
tion was secured, also that of the teachers and school 
children ; and when they would reach the parents of the 
children, the ladies of the club wondered in the spirit of 
the story of a tenement district in New York. This is 
the story : 

" Mrs. Malone, and did the settlement visitor see you this morning ? " 
" Sure she did that ; came telling me about sanation and high 
genny, and telling me to give my baby civilized milk, and I said, ses 
I : ' Have you any children ? ' and she says, ' No.' I ses : ' Then what 
do you come telling me how to bring up children ? I guess I knows ; 
I buried eight already.' " 



354 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

This antagonistic spirit did not prevail with the parents 
at Macon. They heard and received gladly. Improvement 
for the schools meant to them books, magazines, pictures, 
fence, and seed. 

Georgia has many school-improvement clubs scattered 
over the state and doing a noble, work. 

In Missouri the cities and towns are spending annually 
nearly five times as much for school buildings and school 
equipment as do the country districts, notwithstanding the 
fact that there is a much larger percentage of pupils 
enrolled in the country districts. The poor attendance in 
the country is attributed to lack of organization and lack 
of high-school opportunities. State Superintendent Car- 
rington is working for more efficient supervision for the 
country school and advocating making the county the unit 
for school-revenue purposes. Mr. Carrington is making 
some progress with consolidation. He says : 

Too long have we striven to locate a school on every hill and in 
every valley. Instead of ten thousand school districts in Missouri it 
would be better if there were only a thousand. We would then have 
a thousand high schools instead of the three hundred at present. If 
properly distributed, there would be a high school within six miles 
of every home, — a thing to be desired. Until this is accomplished 
Missouri cannot claim to have a school for every child. 

He has also issued a course of study in the elements of 
agriculture for the country schools of his state. The sub- 
jects are grouped under the following general heads: 

1. Studies on soil. 

2. Roads, — importance and improvement. 

3. Studies on seeds and related subjects. 

4. Studies on plants. 

5. Orcharding and gardening. 

6. Studies of insects. 

7. Stock raising and feeding. 



A LAST WORD 355 

A list of reference books on elementary agriculture, 
together with a list of Farmers' Bulletins as issued by the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington, are given for 
study and reference by both pupils and teachers. 

In Minnesota, for the year ending July 31, 1904, a total 
of eight hundred and thirty country schools received state 
aid to the extent of one hundred and twenty dollars each. 
The country schools receiving such aid must satisfy the 
State Department of Public Instruction that the heating 
and the ventilation are adequate to the purpose for which 
they are intended. State Superintendent Olsen has issued 
a bulletin giving directions for installing a practical system 
of heating and ventilation for a one-room country school. 
Because of this stimulus in the way of state aid not only 
have eight hundred and thirty country schools made a 
much-needed improvement, but also two hundred and 
seventy semigraded schools have been helped along simi- 
lar lines. The force of the example of these districts will 
influence neighboring ones. 

The state of Virginia has recently conducted a notable 
educational campaign in which special emphasis was placed 
upon country-school conditions. 

The state of North Carolina is making wonderful prog- 
ress in the improvement of country schools. Since June 
30, 1902, a total of 1 133 country schoolhouses has been 
built at an aggregate cost of $490,272.44. The value of 
the entire public-school property of the state has been 
increased from #2,632,659 to $4,666,770. By act of the 
General Assembly, in 1903, a loan fund was established, 
which now amounts to $254,065. This sum is increasing 
every year by the four per cent interest on the amount 
loaned and by the proceeds of the sale of swamp lands 



356 



AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



belonging to the State Board of Education. Of this loan 
fund one tenth, together with the interest on the entire 
fund and the annual proceeds of the sale of swamp lands, 
is available annually as a loan for the building and improve- 
ment of schoolhouses. 
The state school law has 
been amended so that 
every new schoolhouse 
erected must be in ac- 
cordance with plans 
approved by the State 
Superintendent of Public 
Instruction and the 
County Board of Educa- 
tion. The number of 
school districts without 
houses of any description 
has been reduced from 
eight hundred and forty 
to five hundred and fifty- 
three, and the number of 
log schoolhouses has 
been decreased from 
eight hundred and twenty- 
nine to five hundred and 
forty-nine. In the same 
length of time, also, much valuable work has been done 
in furnishing and beautifying schoolhouses, improving 
school grounds, etc. 

A recent pamphlet issued from the office of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Carolina 
gives a clear and definite account of the valuable assistance 




Fig. 154. Such a Tree as this Ought 
to be in Every School Yard 



A LAST WORD 357 

the earnest women of the state are rendering in the im- 
provement of school conditions. It shows how women, 
properly organized with a plan for work and working the 
plan, may create a public sentiment for better things for 
the country child. 

The Woman's Association for the Betterment of Public 
Schoolhouses in North Carolina was organized at the 
State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro, in 
March, 1902. The organization comprises a state associa- 
tion, county associations, and local associations. Article II 
of the state constitution reads as follows : 

The object of this association shall be to unite the women citizens 
of North Carolina for the purpose of awakening their interest in the 
improvement of public schoolhouses in our state. It will undertake 
to have local associations in every county. Through these it will 
endeavor to interest a volunteer association in the neighborhood of 
every public schoolhouse, which will help to beautify the premises by 
planting trees and flowers, placing pictures on the walls, or otherwise 
improving the school environment of our future citizens; to furnish 
entertaining and instructive amusements, and to encourage the estab- 
lishment of local public libraries. 

Article II of the county constitution reads : 

The purpose of this association shall be : 

1. To arouse interest in the educational conditions, problems, and 
work in County. 

2. To interest the people of the county in the improvement of their 
schools. 

3. To establish a local association in every school district in the 
county. 

Article II of the local constitution reads : 

The purpose of this organization shall be : 

1. To arouse interest in education and to insist upon the impor- 
tance of every child being in school every day of the school term. 



358 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

2. To unite all the people of this community for the improvement 
of our public school (i) by placing in the school facilities for health, 
comfort, and education, together with objects of beauty ; (2) by planting 
trees, shrubs, and flowers in the school grounds; (3) by encouraging 
the establishment of a public library in connection with the school ; 
(4) by making the school the center of the community by furnishing 
wholesome and instructive amusements ; in a word, to improve the 
physical and intellectual environments of our future citizens. 

During the first three years of the existence of the 
Woman's Association fifty-four county organizations have 
been formed, with nearly two hundred local branches. The 
state organization employs five field workers, who have 
visited forty-five counties, visiting schools and addressing 
meetings of teachers and patrons of the schools. 

The report from one or two counties will show the 
extent and importance of the work of the association. 

Cleveland County reports : 

During the year 1903 the county association raised one hundred 
and fifty dollars for improvements. There were twelve libraries estab- 
lished and twelve houses improved through the influence of the asso- 
ciation, the value of which was increased from eighteen hundred 
dollars to five thousand dollars. 

Rockingham County: 

There was a large association organized, affecting seventy-two 
schools. They raised fifty dollars for pictures, one hundred and sixty- 
five dollars for libraries, and twenty-five dollars for other improve- 
ments. During the year five hundred pictures were hung on the walls 
of the public schoolhouses and twelve libraries were established. 
Two houses, valued at twenty-three hundred dollars, were built 
through the influence of the association. 

Surry County: 

An association was organized, with seventy-five members. Every 
school in the county was reached. Through the influence of the 
association twenty-three new houses were built, increasing the valua- 
tion from $1200 to $5750. 



A LAST WORD 359 

Wayne County: 

An association was organized, with two hundred and thirty active 
members and fifteen associate members. During the year forty-three 
schools were reached. The association raised seventy-five dollars for 
pictures, four hundred and sixty-four dollars for libraries, one hundred 
and twenty dollars for other improvements, hung two hundred and six 
framed pictures, and helped to establish forty-one libraries. 

The influence of a similar organization for the improve- 
ment of conditions for the country school ought to be felt 
in every state. It is not North Carolina alone that needs 
this awakening. The following picture of the average 
country schoolhouse in North Carolina may not be the 
" average " in many other states, but such a picture can be 
seen in too many places in too many states. This picture 
is given 'in the pamphlet issued by State Superintendent 
Joyner (1905) which describes the work of the Woman's 
Association, and shows the urgent and patriotic duty of the 
noble women of North Carolina. 

The average house is accurately and faithfully described 
by Mr. Charles L. Coon as follows : 

The schoolhouse is a shabby-built board structure one story high. 
The overhead ceiling is not more than nine feet from the floor. There 
is one door in the end of the house ; there are six small windows, 
three on either side. There are no blinds and no curtains. The desks 
are homemade, with perpendicular backs and seats, all the same size. 
There is a dilapidated wood stove, but no wood box, the wood for the 
fire being piled on the floor about the stove. The stove is red with 
rust and dirt, never having been polished and cleaned since it was 
placed in position for use. The floor of the house is covered with red 
dirt and litter from the wood. There are several broom-sedge brooms 
lying in one corner of the room. The occupied blackboard space in 
this house is just eighteen square feet. The blackboard is, however, 
too high for the children to use well, and it is too small for anything 
but a bulletin board. There is no teacher's desk or table. There is 



360 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



the room. The walls and windows are covered with dust and seem 
never to have been washed. All the children's books are soiled and 
look very much like their surroundings. There are no steps to the 
schoolhouse; an inclined plane of dirt answers that purpose. The yard 
is very muddy during the winter, and the general appearance of the 
place anything but attractive. 

The reader, perhaps a country school-teacher, perhaps a 
teacher in a fine city-school building, no doubt wonders, 
What in the world should I do if placed in a schoolhouse 
like this ? In truth, there are tens of thousands of country 
teachers teaching school under conditions very much like 
those in the "average school" described above. Many of 
them are making heroic and effectual efforts to improve 
conditions, although the world does not hear enough of 
their great work. Now for the teacher who has done noth- 
ing so far, but wants to know what to do, the following true 
picture is given in contrast with the one hung above. This 
country school-teacher, Mr. John S. Teague, won a scholar- 
ship to the Agricultural and Mechanical College summer 
school, offered by the Wayne County Association of North 
Carolina to the teacher of the county who should make the 
greatest improvement in his or her schoolhouse and grounds 
during the year. This is what he tells of things done : 

When I first came to Watery Branch, Wayne County, two years 
ago, I found a house with not room enough for the children, situated 
in the woods, with a path in front leading to the door. The building 
was surrounded with shrubbery of every description, from the tall 
oak to the tiniest fern, intermingled with dead brush and decaying 
leaves that could count their age by decades. Dead stumps of all 
sizes peeped up here and there, with their snaggled teeth offering 
defiance to the passer-by. A wash in front, on the side of the road, 
was slowly but surely eating its way to the house. Many of the limbs 
of the trees were kissing old mother earth. All the trees needed an 



A LAST WORD 



36 



introduction to the pruner's knife, and not a few were anxiously wait- 
ing in old-maid fashion for a husband by the name of Mr. Ax, who 
would lift them from their sad state and dress them in costumes to 
be an ornament to the people. 

If an artist had by chance gone into the building, he would not 
have found anything to tickle his fancy or please his eye save the 
children, and perhaps the teacher. Here were children hungering and 
thirsting for books to read, but sadly waiting to be filled. Nothing 
there to woo them to come to this sacred place save the whistle of 
the wind and the song of the mocking bird. With very few books to 
read, no yard to play in, no flowers in the yard or house to send forth 
their fragrance for them, no pictures on the walls for them to look at, 
no shades on the windows, not comfortable room enough in the 
house, is it any wonder that so many of the boys and girls never 
came to school ? 

To-day, by the cooperative work of parents, pupils, and teacher, 
we have turned these, dry bones into a living personage. Fifty stumps 
have been taken up, thirty trees uprooted, logs cut and put into the 
wash and dirt thrown over them and made level. There are flowers 
of several kinds in the house on shelves made for the purpose, and 
flowers in the yard. The limbs from the trees have ceased to kiss the 
earth, but with the aid of the pruner's knife those left are pointing 
heavenward, inviting all to let their lives do likewise. 

Twenty pictures are in the house, seven of them nicely framed. 
Shades are over all the windows. We have a library of books neatly 
cased. Our seating capacity has been enlarged one third by taking 
out an old rostrum. 

We gave two nice entertainments and collected forty-two dollars 
with which to pay for our library, pictures, shades, etc. We still have 
on hand fourteen dollars and twenty-five cents with which to have 
planted two rows of shrubbery from the front of the house to 
the road. 

It is with pride that I point to the fact that the children were the 
most anxious to help in this beautiful work. Instead of disliking the 
old place, they are proud of their school. Their books are kept neater, 
their faces and hands cleaner, and their hair is usually combed. 
Somehow the boys do not mind building fires, sweeping the yard, or 
cleaning off their feet at the door. The girls are delighted to sweep 



362 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

the floor and dust the desks. No spider has a chance of life on those 
premises, and last, but not least, our worthy county superintendent 
enjoys visiting us. 

Comment is unnecessary. Go thou and do likewise. 

The corresponding secretary of the state organization, 
Miss Mary Moore, furnishes the following paragraph with 
reference to cooperative work : 

Since the organization of the association many hundred letters 
have been written to the county superintendents, officers of local 
associations, and teachers. Literature has been distributed over most 
of the counties of the state. Through Mr. J. B. Upham, who has 
charge of that department of the paper, the Youth's Co?npa7iioii 
has very kindly given us a large number of pamphlets on " Ideal 
Public Schools," " How to Set out Shrubbery," etc. ; also three 
thousand copies of Free Public Education, a little pamphlet setting 
forth the need for free public education and having the name of the 
Woman's Association printed on the back. The Youth's Companioii 
also gave pictures, which many of our schools have been fortu- 
nate enough to secure. Mr. O. J. Kern, Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, Winnebago County, Illinois, sent many valuable sug- 
gestions on the improvement of houses and grounds. The Perry 
Pictures Company furnished a large number of mounted pictures 
suitable for schoolroom decoration, and many sample pictures to 
be distributed among teachers. Mr. L. H. Bailey of Cornell Uni- 
versity sent one hundred and fifty copies of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 160, which have been distributed. Mr. Clarence H. Poe, editor 
of the Progressive Farmer, offered to publish any article on our work 
that we would send. Letters have been received from many county 
superintendents which show that they are in hearty sympathy with 
our work. On all sides the association receives expressions of hearty 
sympathy and cooperation. 

In the report of Mr. John T. Prince, Agent for the Mas- 
sachusetts State Board of Education, as given December 
31, 1904, that gentleman has the following with reference 



A LAST WORD 363 

to the country-school problem of the Old Bay State. 
Writing about the future of rural schools, he says : 

In this statement of the conditions underlying the work of the 
rural schools a rather hopeful view has been presented, partly because 
they show a great improvement over conditions which formerly 
existed, and partly because they indicate a spirit of activity and prog- 
ress. It must be admitted, however, that in actual work done they 
are, as a rule, inferior to the schools of the cities and large towns; 
but the success attained in some rural schools warrants the belief 
that with the improved conditions these schools have yet a great 
work to do. 

Besides carrying on the so-called " regular studies " in a practical 
and effective way, they may, through lessons in nature study, help the 
children to a genuine love of nature and country life. They may be 
the means of introducing into the home artistic and useful occupa- 
tions ; and, they may, as some have done already, do much in manual 
and industrial work to prepare the pupils to choose and follow effi- 
ciently some vocation in life. Indeed, it is not too much to hope 
that some time in the future the farms themselves will be made more 
productive than they are, through the agency of proper instruction in 
the school. By some such means as these life in the country may 
be made more attractive, and the present rush of young people to 
the cities may be stayed. 

For the present, besides consolidation, the country schools 
of Massachusetts are being helped by increasing the effi- 
ciency of the teaching force, — a very important improve- 
ment. This is being done, as Mr. Prince says, by (1) better 
salaries because of increased state aid; (2) by increasing 
the number of normal schools so that more persons may 
receive a training for teaching ; (3) by the changed character 
of the supervision. 

North Dakota may well lay claim to being a very pro- 
gressive state educationally. For five years a law has been 
in force whereby the county superintendent may call a 



364 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

directors' meeting in each county for the purpose of dis- 
cussing educational topics and policy. Thus it seems that 
North Dakota is the first in this regard. 

It is also claimed for this state that better wages in gen- 
eral are paid county superintendents. Counties with more 
than fifty schools must provide a deputy to assist the county 
superintendent in the discharge of his duties. Mileage is 
paid each county superintendent at the rate of ten cents 
per mile for every mile he travels in the discharge of duty. 

Again North Dakota strikes twelve. The minimum- 
wage law for teachers is forty-five dollars per month 
for the second grade. Teachers of a higher grade must 
receive more. All third-grade certificates are to be elimi- 
nated after 1908. Other states having a minimum-wage 
law are Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Ohio. 

The following is the law recently enacted in Ohio : 

Minimum-Salary and State-Aid Law 

Section i. That no person shall be employed to teach in any 
public school in Ohio for less than forty dollars a month ; and that, 
when any school district in Ohio has not sufficient money to pay its 
teachers forty dollars per month for eight months of the year, after 
the board of education of said district has made the maximum school 
levy authorized by law, three fourths of which shall be for the tuition 
fund, then said school district is hereby authorized to receive from 
the state treasury sufficient money to make up this deficiency. Any 
board of education having such a deficit shall make affidavits to the 
county auditor, who shall send certified statement of the facts to the 
state auditor. The state auditor shall issue a voucher on the state 
treasurer in favor of the treasurer of said school district for the full 
amount of the deficit in the tuition fund. 



A LAST WORD 



365 



Section 2. Any school district shall have the state aid provided 
for in Section one, provided it has in it not less than twenty times as 
many persons of school age as it has teachers. 

Section 3. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are 
hereby repealed. 





Pupils Enrolled 




1900 




433759 


1905 




507,423 



A Statistical Table showing the Improvement in the 
Rural Schools of Tennessee from 1900 to 1905 



Scholastic Population 

1900 658,238 

1905 645,237 

Average Attendance 

1900 302,111 

1905 . . ' . . . . ' . . 348,688 



Entire Amount Expended 

1900 ^1,809,246.34 

1905 ...... 3,101,847.33 

Amount appropriated by State 

1900 #129,413.16 

1905 635,494.78 

Number of Schoolhouses 



1900 
1905 



7043 
6855 



Average Monthly Compensation 
of Teachers 

1900 $3 T>I 6 

1905 34-S7 



Average Length of School Term 

1900 96 days 

1905 113 days 

Amount per Capita of Scholastic 
Population 



1900 
1905 



• £2.35 
■ 4-54 



Amount appropriated by Counties 

1900 #1,679,833.18 

I9°5 2,466,352.55 

Vahie of School Property 

1900 $1,459,958.18 

1905 2,701,162.00 

Per Cent of Graduates from 
Public-School Course 



1900 
1905 



67% 
'7i% 



366 AMONG COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

And now for the last word. The country child is e?ititlcd 
to every whit as good an educational opportunity as that 
now enjoyed by the most f avoir d city child attcndijig the 
American public school. 

In order to have this equality of educational opportunity 
for the country cliild', the country people must spend more 
money on the country school and spend it in a better way. 

Thou shalt enrich and enlarge the life of the 
country child. 



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